The National Football League had its Monday Night Football game on ESPN that featured the New York Jets against the Miami Dolphins. While I was watching the game it was kind of hard understanding why ESPN kept putting the camera on Marc Anthony and his Entourage that was sitting with him the the owners both. Little did I know that the NFL was celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month and the Jets-Dolphins game was the last event. I found that out while reading an article from Advertising Age by Laura Martinez.
Marc Anthony is a minority owner of the Dolphins and he helped celebrate the night right. The husband of Jennifer Lopez (Anthony) sang the national anthem and even invited a few of his closest friends to celebrate with him. Dwayne Wade, who is also a minority owner of the team was there along with Cincinatti Bengal Wide Reciever, Chad Ochocinco. The NFL did a great job last night but what capped it off for me was the commercials that aired in Miami leading up the night.
The NFL produced four commercials playing off the Jets-Dolphins rivalry and advertised them specifically to the Latino community. The commercials were played on ESPN Deportes. These four commercials (click on each one to see them) commercial 1, commercial 2, commercial 3 and commercial 4 are very funny. They attract not only to the Latino community but to anyone with a sense of humor. This was simply great advertising. With so many people of Latin descent living in Maimi to the growing population there is in the United States, it was a great way not only to get people to watch last night's game, but to also get people to subscribe to ESPN and all of its other stations.
There are plenty of things that can go wrong when trying to advertise to a certain people of a certain culture. You have to really know what you are doing and you have to make sure that the advertising hits home but not in the wrong way. This campaign hit home immediately as soon as they showed the pinyatta and the little boy hitting it with a stick wearing a Mark Sanchez jersey. This was perfect timing by the NFL. Sanchez who is Mexican-American has gotten the Jets franchise even more popularity by bringing in the Latino community to support them. The NFL could not do this with Tony Romo who is also Mexican American. He just does not appeal that much to the community for whatever reason that might be. Romo does shy away from his heritage where as for Sanchez, he embraces it.
On the night of Monday, October 12, 2010, Monday Night Football was one to remember. It wasn't because the Miami Dolphins embarrassed Jets Head Coach, Rex Ryan's defensive genius by running wild cat plays for 98% of the game and actually ended up winning. It was because of the unity that was shown not only in the stadium and in the press boxes but also on facebook and aim. Millions of people were joined together watching and blogging about an event all at the same time. Every down of every play, during commercial breaks and even during half-time and after the game people shared there thoughts and emotions until the early morning. WOW
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