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Make sure you’re paying attention to the ads the Trump campaign has been putting out in Spanish. Some links below. And, first, a few notes:
All the ads use Goya as a hook (strange times). Each is directed at a distinct sub-ethnicity (Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican). And the cultural cues are dialed up— all the damn way up.
Notably, the voices are all women. Even Trump allies acknowledged earlier this year he wasn’t getting any traction with Latinas (as reported by @Carrasquillo). So is this desperation? Unfounded optimism? Or something else? https://bit.ly/3jBpEcr
w/ the Cuban vote, it’s feasible Trump is trying to run up the score. (At @EquisResearch we wrote about Cubans last week. Note that this new Cuban ad debuted on Alex Otaola’s YouTube show, mentioned in our analysis). https://bit.ly/3jMkcUi
w/ Puerto Ricans, the accent of the narrator betrays an attempt to lock down the GOP portion of the vote (it's an accent stereotypical of a wealthy/sheltered suburbanite from San Juan, to the point it sounds like a parody-- h/t @fcoloninFL)
But there's something else. A pandemic is ravaging Hispanic communities & the president’s campaign is talking about…beans? My guess: Trump isn't so much trying to win over votes as to depress the Biden vote. “Yeah, I might suck, but the other guy sucks too. What’s the point?”
The ads bear the hallmarks of campaign staff who think they're smarter than they are. But, in a vacuum, they might actually work. That's why it's critical that Biden & allies continue to move positive content that emphasizes his leadership & empathy on economy/health/education.
Biden doesn't even need a cartoonish narrator! This isn't rocket science. Case in point: I'm desperate for his campaign to re-cut this ad for a Spanish-speaking audience:
Ok, to the Trump ads. First up... a TV spot targeted at, mostly, older Cubans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=atkkXzXJiy4
A radio spot targeted at Puerto Ricans raised on the island:
A radio spot targeted at more recently arrived Cubans:
And, finally, a radio spot targeted at Mexican-Americans who are 1st/2nd generation (still close to the immigrant experience):
