FEMALE ETHNIC REPRESENTATIONS IN COSMETIC ADVERTISEMENTS. HOW DO LATINAS INTERPRET AND RECEIVE THE MESSAGES?

The investigation is a grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) qualitative analysis that explores the reactions of ten Latinas after reviewing cosmetic advertisements from Latina and Cosmopolitan magazine. Latina is a Hispanic magazine and Cosmopolitan is a U.S. mainstream magazine. Latina magazine includes content in the English-language and Spanish-language and Cosmopolitan magazine presents content in the English-language. Participants were recruited using social media and the snowball technique. The ten participants were between the ages of 21 to 26 years old. I conducted individual semi-structured interviews. Participants reviewed a total of 53 cosmetic advertisements that were published in each Latina and Cosmopolitan issue from January 2011 to March 2011. Through implementing Glaser and Strauss’ (1967) grounded theory analysis, three major themes developed. The emergent themes included: fears of aging, negative stereotyping of the Latina image, and recommendations given to Hispanic marketers. Overall, these Latina participants want positive embodiments of the diverse U.S. Latina population to be represented throughout Latina and Cosmopolitan cosmetic ads and other mainstream magazines.