A Chevron Car Speaks Spanish on English TV
Taco Bell’s quirky Chihuahua isn’t the only Latino voice speaking on English-language television. Chevron on Monday will introduce a Spanish-language gasoline commercial with English subtitles that will run on general-market stations in the Los Angeles area.
Chevron’s bilingual “Mariachi” commercial is part of an advertising industry evolution that reflects efforts to broaden the outreach to Latino consumers. The gas and oil company’s move recognizes that Spanish-language media aren’t the only option.
“Our surveys of television viewers show that when it comes to TV, a majority of Latinos are bilingual,” said Harry P. Pachon, president of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute in Claremont. “If you’re only broadcasting in English or Spanish, you’re going to miss a significant portion of the population. It makes for a crazy bit of explaining--a Spanish-language commercial with English subtitles on an English-language station--but it’s a welcome development.”
Chevron acknowledged that the ad might confuse some English-language viewers, and one Los Angeles television station has decided not to run the spot. Chevron will monitor viewer reaction. However, as of now, the company plans to roll out the commercial later this year in such important Latino markets as San Diego, Houston, San Antonio and Miami.
The bilingual ad, created by San Francisco-based Bravo Group, features the animated cars that have appeared in the company’s 5-year-old general-market campaign. A companion English-language ad that began running this week, for example, shows a “surfer” car being drenched by a wave at the beach.
The 30-second bilingual ad, which has run for months on Spanish-language stations, soon will be seen during such programs as Dodger baseball telecasts, “60 Minutes” and “Cheers.”
In the commercial, the car yearns to sing like its owners--a Mariachi group--but accepts instead a tank of gas with Chevron’s Techron additive. For the general market, Chevron kept the Spanish audio track but added English translations of the dialogue in subtitles.
“It makes good business sense to run commercials that appeal to all individuals,” said Pat Woertz, president of subsidiary Chevron Products Co. “We’re running this one in the L.A. market, where we have a variety of types of customers. It’s an ad that reflects our customers and their diversity. And we think people will enjoy it.”
No matter which language advertisers are speaking, there’s good reason to be targeting Latino consumers.
Latinos make up 11% of the U.S. population, and the group is growing at a faster rate than the population as a whole. According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, more than 40% of the 27 million people to be added to the census during the next six years will trace their heritage to Latin America.
The Chevron commercial marks the first time a gas and oil company has used bilingual advertising in a general-market television campaign. A handful of companies, including Miller Brewing, Nike and Ford, have experimented with Spanish-language ads shown on general-market television with English subtitles. A Spanish-language L’Oreal spot featuring actress Jennifer Lopez ran during a January episode of “Melrose Place” on Fox, for example.
Foreign-language commercials regularly run on English-language channels without subtitles. MediaOne cable subscribers in the eastern San Fernando Valley, for example, get Spanish-language ads during Nickelodeon shows, and KNBC-TV has run commercials in Korean, French, Italian and Spanish.
KABC-TV in Los Angeles has decided not to run the Chevron commercial because “they apparently have a policy in which they feel they are an English-language station,” said Jim Gordon, Chevron Products manager of retail advertising and sales promotion.
A KABC spokesman said, “Unfortunately, we’re not available for any comment.”
Some marketers have used bilingual commercials as a device to catch the eyes and ears of English-language consumers.
IBM, for example, produced bilingual ads to emphasize its international business prowess. And, marketers say, the box-office success of the Italian movie “Life Is Beautiful” suggests that Americans aren’t necessarily put off by subtitles.
In such markets as Los Angeles and Miami, the blending of two languages mirrors the growing number of bilingual Latino households and the blurring of language barriers on Spanish-language media.
“You’re reaching for Hispanic consumers who are consuming English media to different degrees,” said John Gallegos, vice president and account director at Casanova Pendrill Publicidad, an Irvine-based agency specializing in Latino campaigns.
“It’s like having someone named John Gonzalez,” Gallegos said. “He’s not Juan Gonzalez, who’s recently arrived here and completely Spanish-dependent. But he’s not yet John Smith, who’s totally assimilated and acculturated.”
Many broadcast networks now incorporate English dialogue from their hit shows into Spanish-language-radio ads promoting upcoming episodes. Western Union is running an ad on Spanish-language radio stations that blends English and Spanish dialogue in equal parts. And in United Airlines’ Spanish-language-radio ads, the “United is rising” tag line is spoken in English.
“What’s happening is something called ‘crossover,’ ” said Robert Howells, president and chief executive of Mendoza, Dillon & Associados, a Newport Beach-based agency that specializes in Spanish-language advertising. “Advertising is being created that tries to depict products in a real-world way so people can relate to them better.”
Marketers are divided on the effectiveness of bilingual ads on English-language media.
“As far as reaching multicultural consumers, the English-language media is not the way to go,” said M.J. Fernandez, director of multicultural marketing for J.C. Penney. “The research that we have . . . tells us that ads to Hispanic consumers in Spanish are up to five times more persuasive.”
Don Kott, chairman of a Latino marketing committee for Southern California Ford dealers, believes that bilingual ads can generate business. Ford dealers last year ran a 60-second Spanish-language TV commercial with subtitles on general-market stations. The ad used Mexican soap opera stars to sell cars to hard-to-reach Latino viewers.
“It’s very hard to measure any one specific ad’s impact,” Kott said. “But I can tell you that our market share in Hispanic markets since we increased advertising has jumped by 10 points. We’re very happy with the trend.”
Times staff writer Kevin Baxter contributed to this report.
