The ad fight is on for more than 20 million potential Hispanic votes. "Honor," the Dems' latest Spanish-language TV ad, is part of what the Kerry-Edwards team calls the largest Hispanic ad buy in prez-campaign history, at $1 million. President Bush has produced four Spanish-language ads. "Honor" portrays Kerry as a man of faith, family and honor--"messages that are important to Hispanics," says Manuel E. Machado of the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies. Bush's ads mirror his general-market spots, a potential "pitfall," says Machado. "You can't just go on language alone. You have to be able to communicate in culture and context."
Bush's latest ad uses a female narrator, which Hispanic advertisers say conveys warmth and reflects the important role of mothers; a man provides Kerry's voice-overs to indicate authority. The narrators for both camps utilize the neutral-dialect "universal Spanish," which, while speaking to everyone, speaks to no one in particular. Using regional dialects "adds that layer of intimacy," says Rochelle Newman-Carrasco of Enlace Communications Inc., an L.A. Hispanic ad agency. And customizing TV spots--for instance, by addressing immigration in ads for Mexican-Americans--would also help. So far, Kerry is 19 points up in the latest Gallup poll of Hispanic voters.