Saturday, July 8th, 2006...8:24 pm
As Long as Demócratas Unidos Don’t Pick Up Donovan, I’m Okay With It
Those of you that have been watching the World Cup on Univision may have noticed an ad running called “Es Tu Equipo.” You can check out the ad here, and a second ad is here.
The idea of this ad is to speak to new Hispanic citizens who don’t yet necessarily have a party affiliation and tell them a little bit of what the Democratic party is about. In the past, the Republican party has used NFL and NASCAR broadcasts to great effect: “branding” themselves with those sports. The ads are running in nine markets, including Phoenix and Tucson. How successful will it be? I don’t know, but I’m glad someone is trying it.
The ads are accompanied by a website with a simple “platform” in Spanish and English that resembles the one that Howard Dean trumpeted at his latest appearance in Tucson. Also, you can order jerseys and game balls from the site.
The ads are being run by the New Democrat Network, a group run by former Democratic Leadership Council operative Simon Rosenberg. Despite the image held by many progressives that the DLC is this monster machine that manipulates every election, on closer inspection, one would find that they are a heck of a lot more effective getting op-ed pieces written than electing anyone. Rosenberg founded the NDN as a way of building an effective grassroots presence, and quickly ran afoul of leaders in the DLC who didn’t think that such a thing was all that important. Rosenberg’s final break came when he supported Dean’s campaign for the presidency. He now considers himself a “non-denominational progressive,” and is interested in helping Democrats of all stripes.
The ads are running outside the big media markets (the largest seem to be Denver and Phoenix, and the cities are entirely in the West). Is there a plan to expand the penetration later, or is the strategy to work “under the radar” of our East Coast political media?
NB - Interestingly, there is an anti-soccer strain among Republicans. Some of this is driven by xenophobia, and some of it is driven by the belief that football is the true way to train American young men for “manly” pursuits. Rush Limbaugh often goes into rants against it, doing things like accusing the US Women’s team of cheating in the 1999 World Cup and pulling out studies on neck injuries from headers. Former NFL great Jack Kemp took to the house floor back in 1986 to speak out against a US bid to host the World Cup:
I think it is important for all those young out there, who someday hope to play real football, where you throw it and kick it and run with it and put it in your hands, a distinction should be made that football is democratic, capitalism, whereas soccer is a European socialist sport.
I always found this ironic, because there are few non-governmental institutions in this country more dependent on state support and run in a more socialistic way than the NFL.
I have heard it noted that the ads feature the voice of Andrés Cantor. That announcer doesn’t sound much like him.
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