Promoting a minority language to majority language speakers: television advertising about the Maori language targeting non-Maori New Zealanders

It has been claimed that the success of minority language policy initiatives may only be achievable if at least some degree of ‘tolerability’ of these initiatives is secured among majority language speakers (May 2000). There has, however, been little consideration in the language planning literature of what practical approaches might be used to influence the attitudes of majority language speakers towards minority languages, that is to ‘plan for tolerability’. This article considers the approach taken in two recent television advertisements that address the attitudes and behaviours of non-Māori New Zealanders towards the Māori language. It begins by examining the discursive approach taken in these advertisements, the attitudinal messages they convey about the Māori language, and the behaviours they propose for non-Māori New Zealanders. The article then discusses the responses of eighty non-Māori viewers of the advertisements, considering the extent to which they perceived the intended messages of the advertisements, and how their responses were influenced by their existing attitudes towards the Māori language. On this basis, the article assesses the potential effectiveness of using language promotion materials as a means of planning for the tolerability of the Māori language among non-Māori New Zealanders.