Category Archives: Entertainment

Shut Out by Mainstream Media

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I worry that the proliferation of advertising, entertainment and news organizations hoping to engage predominantly English-speaking Hispanics will also isolate a continuously assimilating community from a mainstream that seems to view Latinos as newcomers who don’t quite want to blend into the crowd.

The list of news and entertainment companies jumping into bilingual or English-only programming aimed at Latinos is long and ever-growing, the two most recent examples being Cosmopolitan magazine and Univision-ABC News.

Hearst Magazines premiered Cosmopolitan for Latinas earlier this month to its target audience, “the young, bold, Latina woman who is sexy, stylish, and intelligent,” according to editor Michelle Herrera Mulligan, “and wants to see herself reflected in the pages of a magazine.”

Well, OK. But isn’t that what Latina magazine has been doing for about 16 years? And even it wasn’t the only magazine already aimed at bilingual, fashion-conscious Hispanic women.

You have to wonder why Cosmopolitan sought to capture the attention of young Hispanic women with a separate publication instead of simply folding in more Latina celebrities, models, staff writers and photographers into its flagship offering. It’s not as if you couldn’t quote a Dominican starlet saying “I’m very proud to have Latin blood” or feature photo spreads of Brazilian Carnaval dancers in the regular Cosmo.

Read more:  GazetteXtra.com

Does HBO’s ‘Girls’ Expose TV’s Race Problem?

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…my answer is YES HBO has a problem!

Last week I asked if you would be tuning into HBO’s new series Girls, which some have hailed as the best show of the year. While some of you said you would be tuning in to watch, the majority seemed to reject the depiction of four twenty-something white women struggling to make it in New York City.

One commenter, Connie, summed up the thoughts of many, writing, “i am so tired of these all white shows speaking for the lot of us, there are girls of all color going through the same things couldn’t a little of that been put on displayed on this show. As a NY’er I am beyond pissed that they are not doing my city justice, NY is more diverse than this culturally.”

Read more here…

Marketing’s New Mainstream: Not Shedding Their Hispanic-ness

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Vergara joins stars including Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, Eva Longoria, Eva Mendes and Selena Gomez who constitute the face of the “now” America and to whom brands are turning to reach consumers across diverse and evolving cultural and demographic constituencies.

Vergara in particular is “a role model and a poster child for crossing over from Spanish-language media to mainstream U.S. success,” explains Rochelle Newman-Carrasco, a Hispanic marketing expert at the firm Walton|Isaacson in Los Angeles, referring to the star’s beginnings on telenovelas. “Almost no other Latina has done that, and she’s managed to become a powerhouse without ever forgetting who she is and where she came from. She didn’t shed her Hispanic-ness.”

c/o:  Hispanic PR Blog

image c/o: The Huffington Post

Are African American Marketing Budgets Dwindling? Here’s Why That’s A Mistake

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As the focus on our growing multicultural market appears to finally be gaining traction are US companies engaging in an either/or scenario when it comes to targeting Hispanics and African Americans?  With the explosive growth of the Hispanic market it seems only fitting businesses would sit up and take notice but does that mean they’ll let African American consumers fall by the wayside?  A new Nielsen study outlines why that would be a big mistake.

The report notes that this population has a buying power of nearly $1 trillion.

Key findings in the report include:

Demographics

  • The number of African-American households earning $75,000 or higher grew by almost 64%, a rate close to 12% greater than the change in the overall population’s earning between 2000 and 2009.
  • The percentage of African-Americans attending college or earning a degree has increased to 45% for men and 53% for women (adults 25+).

Television

  • The average African-American household spends about seven hours, 12 minutes daily watching TV – 213 hours a month – which is 40% more viewing time spent than the overall population.
  • 12.5 million African-American households helped make this year’s Super Bowl XLV the most watched Super Bowl ever.

Mobile

  • African-Americans use more than double the amount of mobile phone voice minutes compared to Whites – 1,298 minutes a month vs. 606.
  • African-Americans send/receive on average 907 text messages.
  • 33% of all African-Americans own a smart phone

Consumer

  • African-Americans may spend less on each shopping trip, but they make the most trips – 167 – annually of any other group.
  • African-Americans in higher income brackets, spend 300% more in higher-end retail grocers, more than any other high income household.
  • African-Americans over-index on purchases of health and beauty products, household cleaning items, clothes, food and electronics to name a few.

Online

  • During July 2011, there were 23.9 million active African-American internet users.
  • African-Americans are 30% more likely to visit Twitter.
  • Top online purchases for African-Americans in the last six months included:
    • Airline tickets/reservations
    • Hotel reservations
    • Any clothes/shoes/accessories
    • Women’s clothes/shoes/accessories
    • Men’s clothes/shoes/accessories

Read more here…

Multicultural Consumer Spending On Entertainment

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Overall spending on entertainment on a typical month is lead by Hispanics who prefer to communicate in Spanish followed by Asians and by Hispanics who prefer English.  African Americans and non-Hispanic Whites, while also spending substantially on entertainment, are less likely to spend $50 or more per month. The following graph shows the percentage of people in each cultural group that indicate spending $50 or more on entertainment in a typical month.

Read more here…

Public Radio In Spanish Gives US Latinos A Voice

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Tune in to Radio Bilingue, and you will hear — in Spanish — breaking news, debates about taxes or health care reform and songs spanning the Latino music spectrum.

As the only Spanish-language, non-commercial public radio network in the U.S., Fresno-based Radio Bilingue reaches an estimated 500,000 Latino listeners per week. It airs on 7 FM stations, via 100 affiliates and on the Internet.

Controlled by Latinos and run by a Harvard-educated former farmworker, the network fills a crucial gap in public broadcasting, which attracts overwhelmingly white, middle or upper class, English speaking audiences. Radio Bilingue targets immigrant and first generation Latinos who are predominantly low-income, young and undereducated.

Experts say the network’s efforts to foster civic engagement are key as the number of Latinos keeps growing and the nation moves toward a presidential election.

c/o:  Radio Bilingüe