viz.

A study recently conducted by researchers at UT-Austin and the University of Florida has shown that alcohol advertising is significantly heavier around schools with Hispanic populations of 20% or more.

While this news is troubling in and of itself, I think it bears noting the number of alcohol advertisements that are also targeted at Latino consumers in particular. I see them whenever I drive around town here in Austin -- billboards with beer ads in Spanish, with the colors of the Mexican flag self-consciously employed. For some reason, however, I could only find two on the web (and one of them -- a Tecate ad -- hearkens from 2004). Latinos are comprising a larger and larger portion of the market for all sorts of products, not just booze. Quick and dirty evidence of this is in the preponderance of caramel and dulce de leche flavoring in everything from M&Ms to ice cream. I kid you not: this is the result of Latino-directed sweet market research. Of course one could point to all the alcohol ads aimed at white people -- there are plenty -- but when you couple the findings of this UT/UF study with the marketing effort, the move seems all the more sinister.