The Spanish bull or the Catalan donkey? L1 Catalan and L1 Spanish consumers’ response to the use of Catalan or Spanish in advertising in Catalonia

Abstract

In an experiment, 239 young bilingual Catalans expressed their general language attitudes towards Catalan and Spanish, and evaluated three different language versions of advertisements (all-Catalan, all-Spanish and a mixture of both languages). Results showed that L1 Catalan consumers had more positive general language attitudes towards Catalan and less positive attitudes towards Spanish than L1 Spanish consumers did, and vice versa. However, there were no differences between L1 Catalan and L1 Spanish consumers in attitudes to the three different language versions of the advertisements. These findings indicate that first language determines general language attitudes but not specific attitudes to language in advertising.