A quick show of hands… are YOU a LatinX? Do you self-identify as a LatinX? Do you know many who do?
August 1, 2020
By Marcelo Salup – Principal at CEO Analytics, LLC – Increasing customer retention & revenues through advanced statistics & algorithms
The issue has bubbled up recently in both, Hispanic Agencies and clients and HispanicAd is only too happy to address it.
The term “LatinX” is used as a self-identifier by only around 2% of the total U.S. Hispanic population. So, 98% of the Hispanic population self-identifies as Latino, Latina and/or Hispanic. So why is the term being used in advertising and marketing conversations as a term to categorize or represent all US Hispanics instead of “Hispanic” or “Latino”?
We spoke to several professionals and arrived at a few insights:
• Need to create a new bussword for the advertising and marketing communities to add new relevance.
• Need for ADVERTISING AGENCIES to pitch themselves as being up to date, cool or younger and seem as if they are not missing out on anything.
• Need for CLIENTS to demonstrate that they are up to date, cool or younger and seem as if they are not missing out on anything.
By the way, LatinXs are almost always 100% English-speaking. By adopting LatinX as the “new Latino” you shoot yourself in the foot. Any Anglo agency could make the case that they could be the LatinX market better than you because you need to reach them in English-language media.
May we propose something? Something that should make any client proud of his agency and any agency come across as even more insightful and professional. Don’t use LatinX.
Tell your clients: “With recent events in our country and the constant push by activists, this is an artificial attempt at mixing Gender-neutrality with Political Correctness. Your consumer, however, doesn’t use the term LatinX, they use Latino, Latina, Hispanic… we (your agency) know the consumer better than anyone and think it is important to speak to that consumer using the terms that the consumers use.”
