Michael Slade
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Michael Slade
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David Morse
Times sure have changed since the days when gay people referred to themselves as "friends of Dorothy," signaling their icon Judy Garland's role in "The Wizard of Oz." It was a code phrase, a necessary thing for gays, who had to live an underground existence, meeting in shady clubs in the nastier parts of town, braving police raids and gangs of gay bashers.
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I am what you would call a completely bicultural and bilingual Hispanic, living and working in the United States. I use both languages for work and at home, to communicate with friends, family and in general in my day-to-day life.
I could easily move through life in a completely English-speaking, Americanized world. But I choose not to. That's why I need to be marketed to in a special way. Because I consume media and culture in both languages, I am invested in my heritage and perhaps most importantly, I want my children to have the same interest and respect for both how they are different and how they are like others in their world.
I'm not alone. Statistics show that a majority of Hispanics want their kids to speak Spanish, even when they themselves are not completely Spanish-dominant. That may portend the longevity of Spanish-language media, but more importantly it shows the significance of culture; our lives are not just about language.
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Rochelle Newman-Carrasco
In the interest of full disclosure, I have done project work for General Mills. So I’m biased. I like Cheerios. So I’m biased. And my in-laws, nieces, nephews, step-daughter and her kid cover a spectrum of interracial and multiracial realities. So, I’m doubly biased. Just as the hate mongers, who are a small but vocal minority, are biased against Cheerios’ bold biracial move into the 21st century.
]]>Last week, a new ad from Cheerios was deemed controversial when media outlets discovered that the racist contingent of the idiocracy known as the YouTube comment section trashed the ad for featuring a mixed-race couple and a biracial child.
But according to data from Ace Metrix, Americans like the ad. In fact, "Good for Your Heart" (called "Just Checking" on YouTube) tested the highest of six new Cheerios ads this year and garnered attention and likeability scores 9% and 11% "above the current 90-day norm for cereals."
General Mills rightly decided not to be swayed by the rantings of deranged internet comments, telling USA Today that the supposed uproar would not affect future casting decisions.
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Bill Imada
Before May runs out, let's spend a few moments thinking about the importance of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, a time when the country recognizes the contributions and achievements of Americans of Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander heritage.
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Chiqui Cartagena
Yesterday I spoke at the International Council of Shopping Centers annual convention in Las Vegas on a panel called "Hispanic Markets: The Next Gold Rush." If you have been to La Gran Plaza Mall in Fort Worth or the Dessert Sky Mall in Phoenix or the newly inaugurated Plaza Mayor at the Crossroads in Oklahoma City, you have experienced one of the newest phenomena in the world of shopping centers -- Hispanic malls.
]]>Various claims filed in April 2012 as part of a race discrimination lawsuit against Interpublic Group of Cos. have been tossed out by a New York district judge. However, one claim made by Trinidadian employee Joy C. Noel -- that Interpublic failed to promote due to her skin color -- has been permitted to proceed to trial.
The trial begins on June 3, according to court documents.
When Ms. Noel filed suit in Manhattan federal court last spring, she sought a whopping $50 million in damages. She claimed that in her many years working for the company, Interpublic fostered an environment where discrimination based on race and color is condoned. She alleged that she was passed over for promotions because Caucasian and light-skinned Hispanics are treated more favorably than African-Americans or other dark-skinned employees. Ms. Noel has been at Interpublic since 1993 and is still an employee there.
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Marketers are plowing more and more resources into digital strategies, and often multicultural budgets are pilfered to pay for it.But this may be a critical mistake, because multicultural consumers are key influencers in the digital space, as well as in a brand's relevance to popular culture.
Michelle Ebanks, president of Time, Inc., multicultural brands ("Essence" and "People En Espaol"), puts it this way: "Both Hispanics and African American women are driving digital adoption, and marketers with digital strategies would benefit greatly from understanding them as leaders of digital behavior."
Thomas Newman, president of Interactive One, observes, more broadly, "Our research has shown that both Hispanic and African American consumers tend to jump on trends early ... recent examples include early adoption of social networking, early adoption and higher usage of smartphones, and over indexing on specific next -generation platforms such as Twitter."
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