Misguided Outrage Over a TV Commercial

Most people by now either have seen Coca-Cola’s Super Bowl ad, “It’s Beautiful,” have heard about the outrage the ad has caused, or both.  In short, the television spot features people singing “America the Beautiful” in various languages over scenes of Americana – mostly families and friends enjoying themselves in everyday scenarios – with Coke’s products near at hand.  Apparently, the use of any language other than English to sing this particular song offended some.  In reading this morning’s news coverage of this so-called controversy, I do not know what makes me sadder – that people are upset at all by the commercial or that the people who are upset either are uninformed or confused over what has upset them.

First, it seems those now calling for a boycott of Coca-Cola’s products have misplaced their anger by approximately 40 years.  This year’s Super Bowl ad is just the latest attempt by Coke to use feel-good unity to sell its products.  Those of us of a certain age can recall the 1970’s “Hilltop” spot that featured a multicultural group of people signing about wanting “to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony,” while holding bottles with Coca-Cola with labels written in different languages.  What is more, some who took offense at this year’s ad lack a fundamental understanding of why they are upset, mistaking “America the Beautiful” for the United States’ national anthem.

Ultimately, Coca-Cola’s latest Super Bowl ad continues the tradition of conflating patriotism and professional sports to sell a product.  Beyond sales, however, I honestly do not understand that traditional conflation.  Having jets or helicopters fly over large scale sporting events at the end of the singing of our (actual) national anthem seems to be more of an institutionalization and normalization of the kind of militarism and nationalism that we as a county have criticized other nations - usually totalitarian and oppressive regimes – for displaying in the past (think Red Square on May Day at the height of the Cold War.)

Perhaps it is the institutionalization and normalization of shows of force prior to violent athletic competitions that suggests to some that they are allowed to be hostile to other people.  Ironically, it is ending that kind of hostility that undergirds Coke’s “It’s Beautiful” spot.  Unfortunately, the actions of those individuals who have responded negatively to Coke’s latest effort at promoting harmony suggest more hatred towards Americans than genuine love of America.

God Made a Mexican Migrant Farmer

Here is a little glimpse of what likely happened in many rural areas of Mexico throughout the financial boom years of the 2000s. Mexican immigrants, legal ones at least, of which there were are about 5.4 million, probably found themselves in construction and labor jobs, with steadier work and higher levels of pay than they had ever experienced previously in their lifetimes.  While many Americans were building expensive new homes and expanding their wealth, Mexican immigrant labor was a beneficiary of this prosperity.

One of the biggest points of pride for rural Mexicans working in the United States is to be able to triumphantly return to their hometowns with evidence that they have succeeded financially abroad. They come bearing thousands of dollars of gifts: flat screen televisions, washing machines, refrigerators, and the newest American styles. These are handed out with great fanfare. The expense of this grandiose gift giving is worth it, because it is an affirmation of one’s choices, and it offsets some of the brutally hard labor that had to be done in order to achieve this material gain.

These gifts were typically transported over land in a marathon driving session. The mode of transportation itself was the ultimate symbol of success and was one that was not given away. Being from areas that frequently lack paved roads, where farming and caring for livestock are still the way of life, hefty, work vehicles are highly valued. None is more valued than a pick up, and there are few automakers other than American ones that have mastered the engineering of a powerful utility vehicle. Even though he would be more likely to use the vehicle on the streets of Chicago or Los Angeles for transportation, rather than work, the symbolic power of the truck transcends borders. A large truck is not seen as a liability in any way, even for a Mexican-descent city dweller, rather it is a great figurative investment. A Dodge Ram such as this one would certainly satisfy the prestige, power, work, and transportation needs of a Mexican migrant.

I wrote a post at the end of last week asking readers to notice the presence, or lack thereof, of marketing to Latinos during the Super Bowl commercials. Except for a silly Taco Bell ad, there was little explicit focus on Latinos.

One commercial that was touted as one of the best overall was a sentimental piece produced by Dodge that hailed the American farmer. The ad touted repeatedly in its tagline that “God made a farmer.” Pictures of farmers served as the backdrop of the ominous and authoritative narration , played with a crackling, old tube radio style overlay. The words and voice were provided by the recording of a 1978 speech given by conservative radio broadcaster Paul Harvey, now deceased. It was no surprise that Dodge would be associated with the hard work of farming, given the affinity that rural Mexicans have for the vehicles, which I mentioned above.

What was surprising was that the portrait that the Dodge commercial displayed was an almost exclusively White one. Judging only from the faces, at best a couple of the 15  farmers whose pictures were shown were Latino. This is in spite of the fact that by varying estimates, between 50 and 70 percent of the farm work labor force is Latino. This is certainly an issue of the inaccurate representation of who farmers actually are. Others, notably Alexis Madrigal of the Atlantic, have already noted that it also downplays the day-to-day issues and injustices that Latino farmworkers face in terms of pay and working conditions. This video shows a farmworker recounting the appalling conditions a typical tomato picker must endure.

Dodge cannot be held entirely responsible for the conditions of farmworkers. They are an auto manufacturer that is trying to sell cars and make money and I fault them in no way for that.  What they missed is an amazing opportunity to do well and do good. Ironically, the great American Dodge Ram is manufactured in Mexico. Latinos have an affinity for pick up trucks. Latinos also have strong ties to farm working today and historically, whether it is parents and family members or they themselves. Dodge has made a previous bad attempt to reach out to Latinos by simply translating their ad and having Latino-looking actors. All of these deeper cultural connections, however, were missed opportunities for Dodge to reach out to a Latino market that it has already begun to tap into; unfortunately for them, they may have just undone some of that groundwork with their insensitive ad.

Latinos and El Super Bowl

The big “Latino” news of this week is probably the announcements by a bipartisan group of eight senators and the subsequent one by President Obama that outlines a set of principles for immigration reform. Some have cautioned that this is entirely a cynical political move that will end in a stalemate (and the draw goes to the incumbent, Obama), I hold a bit of optimism that the law will take some steps forward toward a more common sense and humane immigration system.

One of the big remaining concerns, often a subtext of the immigration debate, is that it is not merely a legal issue or even an economic one, but a symbol of the cultural war. For many Americans immigrant is synonymous with Hispanic, and the big threat of immigration is really the xenophobic threat of a large cultural group coming and changing the culture in which we currently live. Harvard historian Sam Huntington was bold enough to be completely honest about this view when he proclaimed the “Hispanic Challenge” against the American way of life.

So, assuming that my optimistic views are confirmed and millions of Latino immigrants gain the legal right to live and work in the United States, what will happen next? While I don’t believe that a cultural war will take place, there is no doubt in my mind that Huntington was right, that Hispanics will remake America-they already have, and they have done so with most Americans’, and especially entrepreneurial capitalists, enthusiastic support.  Already, businesspeople not only want to court Latinos, they realize they need to. Too, bad so many of them just don’t know how to do it well.

In a few days millions of Americans will be glued to their televisions to watch the real war we all care about, Super Bowl XLVII. With a Civil War-like story line of brother versus brother, North versus South, it should once again break television-viewing records. Of course for many, the real main event is the half-time show, with the potential hope of wardrobe malfunctions, and the commercials. One might assume that Latinos would rather be watching fútbol than football and thus make an extra effort to reach out to them via the between-play marketing. That would be the wrong assumption to make considering a 2009 Nielsen poll showed that football is Latinos’ favorite sport to watch on television. Perhaps therein lies the reason why we can probably expect another lackluster year of commercials with a Latin twist during the big game-the U.S. business world knows we are important, but they still don’t get us.

One mistake marketers make is that getting the attention of Latinos is all about language. They think that if you simply translate the English copy into Spanish and have an aging Latin American actor do the voiceover, then Latinos will rush out to buy the product. That mentality ignores the fact that most Latinos are U.S.-born, English-speaking, and young.

The NBA made a slightly savvier attempt by airing a Spanish-speaking commercial during an English broadcast of one of their basketball games. It breaks away from some tired stereotypes by using a modern, Middle American, backdrop. But, they still wrongheadedly reference telenovelas, the Spanish soap operas that we American Latinos are familiar with, even though we are more likely to be watching The X-factor, or Modern Family.

One ad that has been touted in advance of its Superbowl airing is downright insulting. It already starts off bad because it is an ad for the cheap Mexican knock-off, Taco Bell. It gets worse with the ironic, punk inflected, Spanish with an American accent, signing in the background. Some probably believe that this gets the younger sensibilities of Latinos right, but by going for mockery, both in terms of the product and the ad, and they might as well just dig The Frito Bandito up from the archives.

Personally, I am a fan of a Latina marketing strategist’s idea of “the wink”, which demonstrates the knowledge that Latinos are really American in many ways, but that there is a subtle Latin American sensibility to a lot of what we do. Last year a Super Bowl commercial featuring Carlos Mencía really hit the mark. Carlos, representing what we typically think of as a Latino, with his tan skin and dark features, also portrayed who many Latinos really are with his flawless English and American style. In the commercial he teaches a diverse class of foreigners some key phrases that they will need to learn to survive in the United States. It is great because he is their cultural guide to being American, and like many successful Latinos, he has mastered the art of being a chameleon. He knows the nuances of both cultures, but is decidedly American. He drinks Bud Light, after all.

So when you sit down with your Corona, or more likely, a Bud Light, this weekend, and you find yourself eating chili con carne, and dipping some chips into salsa and guacamole for a traditional American Super Bowl, take note of whether advertisers really get what (Latino) Americans like or not.