A tale of two ad initiatives–one in which the virtues of Spanish-language television are cleverly extolled, the other in which the perils of smoking are conveyed to both the mainstream Anglo and Hispanic markets in the same spot.
Yet while on the surface these two approaches seem diametrically opposed, upon closer examination they have a common bond of consistency in brand across English and Spanish-language marketing.
“You need a consistency in branding. You don’t want to have schizophrenic brands where people are exposed to a general market campaign yet find a completely different brand on the Hispanic side,” said Martin Cerri of Culver City, Calif.-based agency Grupo Gallegos. Cerri served as creative director and copywriter on the alluded to Comcast campaign which promotes Spanish-language TV through a pair of English-language ads with Spanish subtitles.
In one spot, “Most Wanted,” we open on a NewsToday graphic which opens an English language newscast. An anchorwoman then tells us of late breaking news. A wanted and dangerous criminal has escaped from jail. She then refers to disturbing photographs of the criminal and the different looks he assumes.
Unfortunately, the Spanish language subtitles block the portion of the screen where these revealing photos are displayed one after another.
The anchor next tells us of a toll-free hotline to call if we see the dangerous felon. That supered phone number is also obscured by the Spanish-language on-screen translation.
The spot then cuts from the newscast to share the lesson of what we’ve just seen. In Spanish, it reads (here’s the English translation), “When you don’t watch TV in your language, you miss half of the story.”
An end tag advises Spanish-speaking viewers to get CableLatino de Comcast.
The other similarly themed ad in the TV campaign has a news anchor telling us of various foods that contain toxins. Again the subtitles conceal the foods and courses of action viewers should take if they come upon them.
Both Comcast spots were directed by Andy Fogwill of Landia, Venice, Calif., and Buenos Aires.
“The campaign is based on an insight so many of us have experienced,” said Carlos Barciela, producer of the spots for Grupo Gallegos. “I’ll have subtitles on a program and then change channels with the captions still there. And we broke new ground with this campaign. I’ve been living in the U.S. for eight years and never saw something like this in the Hispanic market. Sometimes you see ‘Spanglish.’ But until now, I never saw a commercial completely in English with an American person speaking on Spanish language television. The only words spoken are in Spanish by the announcer [at the end of the spot].”
Cerri related, “It was a really hard process to get approval from Univision to air the spots this way–a message in English in the middle of Spanish-language commercials. When we first sent the network these scripts, they were nervous. In the end, though, they liked the idea. It seems like a contradiction but we used English to make a case for people to watch television in Spanish.”
As for the aforementioned consistency, though, Comcast is a brand that in the mainstream market via Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, has developed a reputation for departing from the norm and delivering clever, humorous content. The work from Grupo Gallegos is consistent in that same branding spirit with its “Most Wanted” and “Food” spots on behalf of Comcast.
Grupo Gallegos is no stranger to delivering this kind of consistency while still crafting messages specifically geared to Hispanic audiences. The agency has done just that with its work for the California Milk Processors Board, which too has a reputation for lauded creative advertising on the mainstream English side via Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.
“For Comcast we had to mimic general market newscasts, which was part of the challenge,” said Barciela. “But that’s our approach at Grupo, Everything we do is new. We like to continually be challenged. And that parallels in many ways the role of the Hispanic agency producer. For me it’s constantly evolving, spanning broadcast, online content, viral, cell phones, even recreating the Comcast idea on radio. If you told me five years ago that I would be doing something other than traditional broadcast and radio, I’d think you were kind of weird. But little by little, integrated campaigns are becoming more commonplace. And even straight broadcast campaigns have to creatively depart from the conventional. Out of this agency, we launched the Spanish-language website for ‘got milk?’ And we had the Foster Farms viral video for the Hispanic market which was a parody of the Dove ‘Beauty’ campaign.”
Cerri noted that another viral for Foster Farms is in the offing out of Grupo Gallegos. “We’re constantly pushing to develop new content that will connect with audiences.”
Anti-smoking PSA
As referenced at the top of this story, consider the anti-smoking public service announcement for the California Department of Public Health that was originally intended to be in Spanish for the Hispanic market.
The message–conceived by Los Angeles-based Hispanic shop Acento Advertising and directed by Clark Anderson of Rhythm + Hues Commercial Studios, L.A.–proved to be so powerful that both Spanish and English-language versions were produced to reach a wider audience.
Titled “Trapped,” the combo live-action/visual effects PSA opens with images that are jarring and disorienting–the imprint of hands, elbows and even a human face pressing from the inside out against a latex-like prison, struggling to get out from some sort of strange cocoon.
The camera then reveals that this white cocoon is a large cigarette standing upright on its filter, the top burning and smoldering away. And as it turns out, we are seeing people trapped in dozens of larger than life cigarettes, pressing from the inside in a desperate attempt to escape.
A voiceover asks, “Are you trapped and don’t know how to escape your addiction to cigarettes?
“One out of two regular smokers will die prematurely from smoking. You don’t have to be one of them.”
The human beings continue to struggle but to no avail.
The voiceover continues, “Escape the trap. Say enough.”
Finally a human hand breaks through the latex and reaches outward towards desperately coveted freedom.
The PSA ends with the appearance of a toll-free phone number which people can call to get help.
Marco Cassese and Gustavo Garcia were creative director and producer, respectively, for Acento Advertising.
“Trapped” earned inclusion late last year into SHOOT’s “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery.
