Selena fue imagen de Coca-Cola para la comunidad latina de EE UU
A new display opening September 12th within the Smithsonian’s “American Enterprise” exhibition will explore hispanic advertising history through the lens of Tejano singer, Selena Quintanilla-Perez (1971 – 1995). In the 1960s and 1970s, Latinos in advertising and Spanish-language broadcasting began advocating for the buying power of Latino consumers. This exhibition case looks at the transition the advertising industry made from mass market to targeting specific demographic groups through the work of the San Antonio-based Sosa, Bromley, Aguilar & Associates, which was founded in 1981 and became the top-billing Latino agency in the industry.Selena was an American singer-songwriter who came to be known as the “Queen of Tejano music” a popular form of music originating in Texas and taking influences from polka, rock, conjunto, and mariachi. She rose to fame in the late 1980s among Mexican-Americans. She would go on to sign with a major record label and the agency worked with her as a spokesperson for Coca-Cola from 1989 until her death. “Selena is a reflection of a second wave of Hispanic marketing” said Kathleen Franz, the chair of the museum’s Work & Industry Division and curator of American Business. “Her selection as a spokesperson for Coca-Cola is based in the growth of the Mexican-American consumer market in the Southwest.” Objects on display include a black leather jacket and black satin bustier worn by Selena between 1990 and 1995 for performances in both the United States and Mexico. The case also includes transparencies from a Coca-Cola photo shoot, some of which were never published, and an image from the 1994 Coca-Cola ad developed by Sosa, Bromley, Aguilar & Associates as well as materials related to the agency’s work on HIV/AIDS awareness in the Latino community.
