BOLD Team Joins The GSC Cafecito Chat To Discuss Hispanic Marketing Smackdown Meeting
BOLD president Carlos Ortiz and Director of Public Relations, Alejandra Chahine took part in the GSC Cafecito Chat this Tuesday, September 6th. The Cafecito Chat is a weekly show hosted by Heather Radi-Bermudez, Marketing Director for the Global Strategic Communications master’s degree program, and Aileen Izquierdo, instructor and graduate director of the Global Strategic Communications master’s degree program. The online show is streamed live on Facebook every week and it discusses current events and important topics happening in the communications department at FIU.
After coming across the BOLD Brew, BOLD’s weekly newsletter, Heather Radi-Bermudez became interested in the Hispanic Marketing Smackdown meeting and how it all came to be. “We knew that it was Hispanic Heritage month and that we wanted to talk about Hispanic marketing. We did not just want to bring a guest speaker, we wanted our members to be part of the conversation,” said Carlos. Member participation is very important for BOLD especially when talking about topics such as cultural representation in the advertising industry.
When talking about the winning McDonald’s Tio Roberto commercial, Heather pointed out that actors were dipping their french fries in mayonnaise instead of ketchup and asked the team if there was any significance to that detail. “In advertising everything is intentional, everything you see is carefully thought out especially when you are marketing to another group of consumers. I know for sure that was something they wanted the viewers to see and recognize,” said Alejandra.
The conversation also touched upon those commercials that completely missed the mark and failed to represent the Hispanic Community. One of those was the 360Fly camera commercial which contained hurtful Hispanic stereotypes. “The whole commercial was supposed to be satirical but it really just came off as offensive. This was something that our members immediately picked up on,” added Alejandra. BOLD members were quick to express their disapproval of the commercial and voice their opinions on the topic.
“We definitely want to implement more meetings where it is more interactive with the members rather than just having a guest speaker. We actually got a lot of feedback after this meeting from the members saying they liked how it was so interactive. “ Carlos said when asked about BOLD’s plan for future meetings. The BOLD team ended the conversation by talking about the importance of member participation and their excitement for future meetings involving the topics of political advertising and African American representation in advertising.
Click here to watch the GSC Cafecito Chat!
BOLD is a student-run strategic communications agency at Florida International University. Click here to learn more.
Written by: Alejandra Chahine, Director of Public Relations