Thread: FL: Car dealer taking heat for ad in Spanish

Car dealer taking heat for ad in Spanish
By ANA X. CERON

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Friday, August 03, 2007

LAKE PARK — Earl Stewart wanted to show a little courtesy to his potential customers.

For that he is being called a traitor, a despicable human being.

His crime? He shot a commercial in Spanish and aired it on English-language TV.

Stewart, 66, has owned Earl Stewart Toyota for 31 years, hawking honesty, integrity and cars in his television commercials.

About six months ago, a Cuban-born sales manager pitched running a commercial in Spanish and airing it on Spanish-only channels.

Stewart thought it was a great way to reach a growing market - local bilingual speakers of Hispanic descent.

But when he found out how much the spots cost on local Spanish-language stations - about $5,000 for 30 seconds of air time, he says - Stewart opted to run them on local English-language channels, where they would cost less.

His commercial started airing about three weeks ago, with Stewart, sitting behind his desk, telling viewers in rough Spanish that his dealership "appreciates the importance of the Latin culture and its economic impact in our community." For those who don't understand, English subtitles flash toward the bottom of the screen.

Ever since, Stewart says he has been getting, on average, about four calls and one or two e-mails a day complaining about the ad. The calls of support, meanwhile, have been only a slight trickle.

Last Friday morning, a woman who described herself as "100 percent American" left Stewart a message calling him a "despicable human being" who was "trying to get some of the illegal aliens to buy your vehicles."

The day before, a man who said his wife was Cuban accused Stewart of "adding to the degradation" of this country.

Stewart was stunned. "Some of them are hard-core bigots, some of them are nice people who don't understand," he says.

He has been calling them back - at least the ones who leave a number - to apologize for offending them, but also to say he didn't intend to make a political statement. He's just trying to sell cars.

Airing a Spanish-language spot on an English-language channel is an unusual approach, says Diana Wilkin, general manager for WPEC-Channel 12.

A lot of stations would refuse to run foreign-language ads because of concerns about how that could affect their branding, Wilkin said. People don't expect to hear Spanish on English stations.

But it hasn't been a problem for the local CBS affiliate. Only two callers complained.

For now, Stewart says he'll continue running the ads. The only thing that would make him stop, he says, is any tangible evidence that his business is suffering.

"Maybe I'm trying to rationalize why I shouldn't cancel the spot," he said.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/ ... 7&cxcat=76

lol He thinks the ad will not hurt his business. He is about to find out. Legal Immigrants and Americans do not need commercials in Spanish.

This guy just rubbed America the wrong way on the biggest issue... language.

I will try to call him tomorrow and explain to him that the polling data on English as the official language is close to 90% nationally.

We see the biggest numbers behind English on these polls.

We win win win, when we pull our opposition into that debate.

W

Can someone homepage this on Fri?

W

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=N ... =0&thold=0

Why would I pay for cable to watch a TV ad in Spanish on an English-speaking station?


Answer: I won't. If I see any of the major stations running Spanish ads I won't watch them anymore.

We are simply going to have to make people understand that sooner or later, they are going to have to take a stand or loose their country.

They can't sit back and rack in the money from the illegals and then scream when the country goes to pot.

That goes for all businesses - big and small.

local bilingual speakers of Hispanic descent.
If they are bilingual, they don't need their ads in Spanish. That is a slap in the face of America and groveling to the Hispanics.