The Use of English in Advertising in Mexican Print Media

Abstract

This article is an analysis of the use of English in advertising in Mexican newspapers (both classified as well as non-classified advertising in Monterrey's El Norte) and in seven magazines published in the Mexico City. A distinction is made early in the article between the use in advertisements of English borrowings that are an established part of the lexicon of Mexican Spanish as opposed to the use of English as language display (Eastman and Stein 1993). The electronic database of Monterrey's El Norte newspaper is utilized to verify the borrowing frequencies. English as language display in advertisements is analyzed according to the framework of English found in a signature line (product name), attention-getter, slogan, body copy, standing details or illustration (Bhatia 1992, Pillar 2003). As many other studies have shown, this study too shows that advertisers in Mexico use English, which now serves as a worldwide lingua franca, as language display in most structural parts of the advertisements.