100% Puerto Rican: Jennifer lopez, latinidad, and the marketing of authenticity

Abstract

In 2012, The L’Oreal Group launched a somewhat unorthodox marketing campaign for their “True Match” foundation, which included both print advertisements and tv commercials, and originally featured three specific celebrities: Beyoncé Knowles, Jennifer López, and Aimee Mullins. Going beyond the “different hues” approach usually promoted by these types of commercials and advertisement, L’Oreal presented consumers with the ethnic background of each celebrity: Beyoncé Knowles was described as African American, Native American, and French; Mullins was characterized as Irish, Austrian, and Italian; and Jennifer López was pronounced 100% Puerto Rican. This essay focuses on Jennifer López’s advertisements, as the claim to 100% Puerto Ricanness carries implications for conceptions of both Puerto Rican and Latina identity in the 21st Century U.S. This is especially key when considering the effects of marketed and marketable appeals to racial and ethnic authenticity in the construction of racial and ethnic identity and racial and ethnic labels. © 2015, Hunter College Center for Puerto Rican Studies.