When the Agenda Drowns Out the Message
NDN is at it again. And I’ve got to say, they had a great idea. “If we want to reach new and recent immigrants, we’ve got to advertise during the World Cup.” You know the hysteria of Super Bowl Sunday? That’s what the World Cup is like with zero- and first-generation Latinos, except the madness lasts for weeks. If my brother-in-law isn’t over in Germany already, watching the action in person, he will be there soon.
And NDN is being much smarter about the tone of their TV ad than they were with their radio ad. To put it one way, it looks much more like everything else on Univision, the dominant Spanish-language TV network in the U.S. And their new soccer-themed radio ad with Andrés Cantor is definitely a step in the right direction.
All that said, I can’t help but imagining viewers watching the NDN TV spot, scratching their heads, saying “huh?” and then not giving it another moment’s thought as the next slick Spanish-language ad appears. “United Democrats. More than a party,” the ad concludes. More than a party? I get the double entendre - partido can mean both party and game. And I get that this is the first ad in a long campaign and may be an attempt to build suspense. Even giving all that its due, it doesn’t feel like much of a call to action for new and recent immigrants. Instead, it seems more like a battle cry in yet another DC turf war over who has the best strategy for rebuilding Democrats.
Look at the landing page for NDN’s soccer campaign: www.ndnfutbol.org. Once you get past the music, click on “entrar” and then on “Los Jugadores” (”The Players”). Think you’re going to see something on soccer superstars Ronaldinho or Borgetti? Or maybe the elected officials who are speaking up on either side of the immigration issue? Or, better yet, a little information about the many diverse groups that make up Latinos in the U.S. - the real players in this political drama?
Think again.
Only in DC.
[Update:] Here is NDN’s own perspective on the ad campaign.
