All-Star Game, Copa America Win Weekly Hispanic TV Ratings Titles – Major League Baseball’s ’Mid-Summer Classic’ All-Star Game and Mexico’s semifinal loss in the Copa America soccer tournament captured the attention of Hispanics, according to TV ratings released by the Nielsen Media Group for the week of July 9-15. More than 530,000 Hispanic households tuned in to watch the American League win its 10th straight game over the National League and claim home-field advantage for the its league’s representative in the World Series, which begins in October. The All-Star Game earned a 4.6 mark to lead the Hispanic TV ratings for English-language programs. The game edged Fox’s ’So You Think You Can Dance’ (4.1) for the top spot, and its All-Star pregame show also posted a top-five mark, tying for third with ABC’s ’George Lopez Show’ with a 3.6. Hispanic Business, online.
Speedway seeks more Hispanic fans – Selling auto racing to Southern California’s Spanish-speaking community is no easy task. Soccer dominates the sports roundups on Univision and Telemundo, on radio, and the sports pages of La Opinion and Hoy. Boxing comes second and auto racing lags somewhere toward the rear of the pack. ’It’s somewhere we don’t really want to be right now,’ Josh Avila said. For Avila, communicating the sport to other Hispanics is almost second nature. He grew up in Riverside learning the language and culture of drag racing, and recently was named by California Speedway as its first Hispanic marketing and communications manager. The creation of the position reflects an upward surge in the Hispanic population, which is expected to be a majority in California by 2042, according to projections released last week by the state Department of Finance. Hispanics already comprise 44.8 percent of the San Bernardino County population, according to a 2006 estimate by the U.S.Census Bureau. But it’s also a population that has had very little exposure to auto racing. The Daily Bulletin, online.
Hispanics, uninsured drive growth at health centers – A dramatic increase in Hispanic patients and those without health insurance has crowded waiting rooms at community health centers nationwide. The number of Hispanic patients seeking care at health centers grew by 52% to 4.8 million between 2000 and 2005, outpacing all other racial or ethnic groups, according to data from Health Resources and Services Administration, which oversees the centers. Final numbers have not been published, but Hispanic patients likely surpassed whites last year in demand for care at community health centers. Many centers have added interpreters, mostly Spanish-speaking, to help doctors and patients communicate. ’We started preparing ourselves seven years ago,’ said Jay Wolvovsky, president of Baltimore Medical System, which runs eight community health centers. ’By hiring outreach people, bilingual staff and interpreters, we’ve become the premier provider to the Latino community in Baltimore.’ USA TODAY, online.
MTV Tr3s Debuts New Branding Campaign – MTV Tr3s’ new campaign “Ears” isn’t squeamish about the literal meaning of “use them or lose them.” Rolling out today, the spots show ears falling off musically challenged young Latinos, fleeing from Muzak and other traditional musical indignities among bilingual hipsters—like vinyl records. “The whole notion is ‘expand your world,’ ” said Daniel Marrero, partner and creative director for CreativeOndemanD, the Hispanic ad agency behind “Ears” as well as the first three-spot campaign wave that launched in June, “Cutouts.” Marrero’s Miami-based Hispanic ad agency, better known as C.O.D., worked with the idea that young Latinos want an edgier message, away from the monotony of yesteryear, with the overarching campaign name of “Para [For] Music Freaks.” “It’s a way of communicating the bilingual element behind that and the MTV attitude as well,” Marrero told Marketing y Medios. “It’s a sense of humor, an edge that you can capitalize on, almost like a cartoon. Basically, [young Latinos] don’t take themselves too seriously. It’s all about having fun.” Marketing y Medios, online.
Mobile ‘taquerias’ bring new flavors to New Orleans – The smell of sizzling beef and warm flour tortillas beckons from a food truck perched at an intersection here. Inside, Maria Jimenez doles out tacos and fajitas thick with meat, cheese and lettuce. Most people who come to Taqueria Los Poblanos order beef or pork tacos. But regulars also like the minced lengua, or tongue. Food trucks such as this one — offering flavorful, cheap and authentic Latin-American fare — were all but non-existent before Katrina. They now dot the landscape in New Orleans and neighboring Jefferson Parish. Their regular customers are the Hispanic laborers who have migrated here to rebuild homes, but they’ve also built a following among local residents. In the New Orleans area, permits issued to mobile vendors that prepare food on their trucks — such as taquerias and hot dog vendors — jumped nearly eightfold from July 2005 to July 2006, the state health department says. Through July 2007, another 83 new permits were issued, up 36% from last year. As it turns out, not everyone is a fan. In June, the Jefferson Parish Council voted unanimously to bar mobile vendors from setting up shop at some of the busiest thoroughfares in the area. USA TODAY, online.
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