Romney's Spanish Language Ad Translations: No Es Bueno?
Watch: / slatester http://slatev.com
Follow: / slateviral / slatevideo
As President Obama and his GOP rival battle it out for the country's 21-million registered Latino voters, campaign commercials from el jefe's challenger don't seem to be picking up on cultural nuance. A story in the Los Angeles Times details how Latino-targeting ads from Romney's campaign seem poorly translated from English by a non-native Spanish speaker. For instance, an ad hitting Obama for saying the private sector is "doing fine," is titled "Van Bien?" when a more realistic translation would be "Las cosas están bien." Marketing specialists say this kind of lack of attention to detail is a recipe for tuning out.
It could be a sign of spending—Romney's investment on Spanish language ads has been dwarfed by the president's in battleground states—or just throwing in the towel on the demographic. New polling suggests a nearly insurmountable lead for Obama among likely Latino voters, whose message for Romney seems to be que no te quiero.