Well the results are in…Hispanic youth were not impressed with the mun2 campaign that was launched in February by Miami Beach-based la communidad. The agency won the mun2 account in August of ’06 and it was worth an upwards of $5 million.

“La comunidad was the perfect agency for our branding campaign,” says Ricardo de Montreuil, mun2’s creative director of on-air and off-air promotions, who also worked with the shop while a senior art director for MTV Networks Latin America. “They had worked with other channels aimed at the same demographics, and for the last two years have been doing an amazing job, winning a lot of awards.”

Well, that was before the results came stammering in. Although the campaign is different and edgy (very reflective of our target), I believe it puts the target in a very compromising position…stuck having to choose between two worlds. I believe the agency and the client were expecting that the general market equation that worked for Burger King (BK) in the general market would work for mun2 for the acculturated Hispanic youth market. What they weren’t counting on was the target’s reaction to the TV spots. According to research conducted by New American Dimensions on the TV spots…

• Only a minority of respondents found the mun2 ads humorous.
• 45% used “funny” to describe the Fences ad, compared to 36% and 30% for the White House and Game Show ads respectively.
• As a comparison, 75% rated the Mencia commercial as “funny.
• About 35% described the humor used in both the Fences and the White House ads as “inappropriate” and about 20% described the ads as “offensive.”
• In one-on-one interviews, many connected the fence jumping to illegal immigration and saw it as insulting to Hispanics.
• Others were offended by the implication that Hispanics should not dream of being president, but should instead focus on occupations like gardening.
• Many did not like the use of the word “gringo” in the ads.
• By contrast, only 9% felt the Mencia ad was “offensive.” *
• While about a quarter of respondents said they loved the mun2 ads, a quarter strongly disliked them.
• Overall, the ads lowered many respondents’ previously favorable impressions of mun2. 34% gave the network a “very positive” rating before seeing the ads; the score fell to 17% after seeing the ads.
• Prior to seeing the ads, only 2% of respondents had a negative impression of mun2; this rose to 24% after seeing the ads.

I believe this campaign did not register well with the target because of the Latino Guilt Factor. Is this a scientific condition? No. It is the innate guilt that each of our Latino mothers instills in us since birth. Many of these kids have been discriminated against at one point or another. Reversing the discrimination cycle does nothing but negatively reinforce all the bad experiences they have lived. This creates empathy for the victim of the discrimination resulting in a joke that was not funny .

I think that it speaks volumes about Latino youth as compared to non-Hispanic kids that really don’t care much about anything. The fact that these kids have such developed sense of identity is amazing. They are very firm and direct with expressing how they feel about being culturally insensitive. For this reason, I believe this is what causes that visceral reaction when seeing how they express themselves in the video below.

Lessons Learned

Don’t raise yourself up by putting others down. This is the message that rings clear after being exposed to this campaign and its affect on the very target of the creative. Not making jokes at someone else’s expense is a basic advertising “golden rule” is it not? Why would it not be the same for us Hispanics? It would be a double standard otherwise.

- Written by Miamiadguy