Citgo uses ethnic solidarity to sell gasoline

Via this we learn that Venezuala's Citgo Petroleum has been/is running TV ads - apparently since last year - that encourage U.S. Latinos to buy their gasoline out of ethnic solidarity. An ad is here. It starts with someone playing "Take me out to the ballgame", when he receives hand signals from someone else and then launches into a salsa number. That bring the previously bored crowd - all of the same ethnicity - alive and they begin to dance as "Energia Latina" flashes on the scoreboard.

While marketing campaigns sometimes miss the mark or try to push the envelope rather than follow a trend, I'm going to guess that they know their market and know that many would heed the call. So, mark this down as yet another small illustration of the current assimilation problem.

Immigration2007b · Wed, 12/26/2007 - 19:19 · · Importance: 1