Latin America is a region of many paradoxes. It is home to one of the world’s most racially diverse populations, yet many groups remain underrepresented or stereotypically portrayed in the advertising there.
The population comprises of immigrants from Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East, as well as indigenous Amerindian populations and African groups descended from slaves. It is also one of the most unequal regions in the world in terms of wealth and income, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), a United Nations regional commission to encourage economic cooperation.
Despite Latin America breaking from its colonial past with Spain and Portugal roughly 200 years ago, its advertising industry is still troubled by a notable lack of diversity and representation.
“While brands have made a concerted effort to increase their representation of various racial and ethnic backgrounds and to break away from the traditional portrayal of gender roles in marketing materials, a large percentage of consumers still do not feel represented in advertising,” said Matteo Ceurvels, eMarketer director of Latin America research at Insider Intelligence, and author of our recent report “Analyst Take: How Brands in Latin America Are Addressing Diversity and Representation in Advertising.”
About seven in 10 (70.2%) adult internet users in Latin America said they did not feel represented in the majority of digital video ads they saw, according to a March 2021 survey conducted by EMI Research Solutions for Penthera.