The Brandcast

Whether you call it dinero, argent, geld, soldi, or cash–everyone understands the common language of money.
And The Home Depot is doing something smart: producing the same commercial spots in English and Spanish–much to the chagrin of lobby groups like English First, who are still pushing for the nomination of English as the United States’ national language at the federal level.

By airing these spots in English and Spanish, The Home Depot could be doubling the number of consumers it reaches, while making a good impression on one of the most rapidly-growing segments of the American population.

But the hostility towards “illegals” in today’s political and social arenas has, unfortunately, spilled over in many cases as a bias towards many legal residents of Hispanic origin, especially in regions that have experienced a large population growth of Latino people during the last decade. It’s unfortunate, since, I can’t think of anyone more American than someone who would travel from their familiar country of origin to the United States to pursue their dream of success through hard work. This situation, though, might be why we see so little bilingual marketing, even in very bilingual markets like Los Angeles, Phoenix and Charlotte.
If more brands reached out to Hispanic audiences like The Home Depot, they would almost certainly notice incremental sales growth. Hopefully other brands will watch the success of this Hispanic Marketing initiative and begin their own– it’ll make the airways more interesting and diverse, and maybe even bring more people together. A common language pales in comparison to a common die-hard enthusiasm for Webber Grills, anyway–right?