Thread: Mayor decries Spanish billboard

http://www.bergen.com

Mayor decries Spanish billboard
Friday, July 7, 2006

By BRIAN ABERBACK
STAFF WRITER


A Spanish-language billboard promoting iced coffee is getting a chilly reception from some Bogota officials.

Mayor Steve Lonegan said the McDonald's billboard on River Road near Elm Avenue and the railroad overpass is offensive because it sends the message that Spanish speakers and immigrants do not need to learn how to speak English.

"English is the language that binds us as a community and as a country," Lonegan said Thursday. "This billboard says, 'You Hispanics can't learn English, so we're going to put up this sign.' It's really sending the wrong message."

Lonegan said he spoke Thursday with a representative from the Fairfield office of billboard company CBS Outdoor and was told that it would be taken down. But an executive at its New York offices said the company will do no such thing.

"It's not coming down," said Jodi Senese, executive vice president of marketing for CBS Outdoor. "The advertising is credible, appropriate and in good taste. McDonald's clearly has the right to target the consumer in that way."

McDonald's did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Some residents disagreed with Lonegan's stance.

"There's a large population of Spanish people in Bogota and [neighboring town] Ridgefield Park," said Bogota resident Leslie Merse as she stood in the parking lot of Classic Laundrette, a few hundred feet from the billboard. "Why shouldn't they have a Spanish billboard?"

The billboard promotes McDonald's new iced coffee drink against a royal and navy blue background. The text reads: "Un frente helado se aproxima. Nuevo cafe helado." English translation: "A cold front is coming. A new iced coffee."

The sign also lists the coffee's flavors -- vanilla, avallana (hazelnut), regular -- and features the fast-food chain's trademark catch-phrase, "Me encanta (I'm loving it)."

According to the 2000 census, 21 percent of Bogota's 8,249 residents are of Hispanic ethnicity. Hispanics make up 48 percent of the middle-class suburb's 1,144-student school district, according to state statistics for the 2005-06 school year.

Bogota Borough Council President George Shalhoub said he understands why McDonald's would target Bogota for the billboard, but agrees with Lonegan that it should be taken down.

"This doesn't help people," Shalhoub said. "It helps McDonald's sell more coffee, but it doesn't help people who live in this country and need to learn English."

Shalhoub, who also speaks Italian and some Japanese, said he is not opposed to learning other languages. "I learned Japanese because I spent a lot of time in Japan for business," he said. "If I wanted to get around, I had to learn the language."

He said the same standard should apply in America.

Carmen Morales, a member of "You Don't Speak for Me," a fledgling organization that opposes illegal immigration, applauded Lonegan's stance.

"I believe that McDonald's should be ashamed of themselves, assuming that Hispanics don't speak English," Morales wrote in an e-mail Thursday. "I feel this is an insult to the Hispanic community. We the Hispanics know what a "Big Mac" is and we certainly CAN read English."

Others disagree.

Bogota Councilman George Silos said Lonegan's request to remove the billboard is an attack on free speech.

"The more I think about it, the more ridiculous and bigoted it sounds to me," Silos said. "I don't care what language it's in. It infringes on First Amendment rights."

Deborah Jacobs, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, said she could not recall any similar situation brought before her. She said Lonegan's action, if taken in his official capacity as mayor, could be a violation of law.

"If the mayor is attempting to use the authority of his position to persuade the company to take [the billboard] down," Jacobs said, "that's an abuse of authority and potentially a violation of free speech."

Lonegan said he is not racist and would demand that the billboard be removed if it was in Italian, German or any language other than English.

"My First Amendment issue is to come out against it," Lonegan said.

Hispanic leaders said Lonegan is overreacting in thinking that foreign-language billboards send the message that immigrants do not need to learn English.

Clara Nibot said English should be America's main language, but she does not believe that foreign-language billboards are at odds with that stance.

"It has nothing to do with demanding that English be secondary," said Nibot, president of the Bergen County Hispanic Republican Organization.

"It's a marketing strategy. I don't think there's any harm in that."

"Latinos want to learn English," said Martin Perez, president of the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey, an umbrella group of most of the state's Hispanic organizations. "That's the way they are going to move ahead in this country.

"The reality is we live in a society that's multilingual, and that's an asset for the country," Perez said.

"We have to celebrate our diversity instead of fighting it."

Bogota by the numbers


Total population: 8,249


White: 6,246, 75.7 percent


Hispanic: 1,759, 21.3 percent*


Black: 473, 5.7 percent


Asian: 639, 7.7 percent

*Hispanics may also be classified as other races.

Source: 2000 Census


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E-mail: aberback@northjersey.com

Just sent an email to support sign coming down. Hope others will do the same

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Just emailed them to take the sign down....You are aware that McDonalds
hires illegals...that explains the sign....They are on my boycott list and have been for over 2 months.

Just sent my email and told them that I and my family have been boycotting their restaurants for months due to the fact that they hire illegal aliens. They should take down that billboard in spanish and advertise in english as that is the language of this country.

I will definitly be sending in a complaint.

I am with the boycotters of fast food chains. As much as I love Wendy's the final straw for me was I ordered a #4 at the drive thru. When I get to the window the girl says $32.06. I go for a burger and fries combo meal re you high? She just kep t repeating the amount. I flipped out over this and said do you speak english? She said un pequeno. I said I want to see a mgr. So I try to explain this to the mgr. that I order one #4 NOT four #4's. So now I am holding up the drive thru line because the mgr. (who's english is better than the drive thru girl but not by much) is having a hard time clearing the computer to put the correct order in. This took literally 10 min to go and get a dang bacon cheeseburger! I would have driven off and sy to heck with it but I am stubborn and I am not one to just ignore a problem. Since then I have not been back.

We also have these hepatisis signs around Boston. lsmith might know what I am talking about. It is in spanish and has something to do with Hepatitis usually found in Bus stops on the streets of Boston. However for the longest time I thought it was about Spanish people getting beat up! Why the heck is a medical public notice only in Spanish? What english speakers don't get hep?

Some residents disagreed with Lonegan's stance.

"There's a large population of Spanish people in Bogota and [neighboring town] Ridgefield Park," said Bogota resident Leslie Merse as she stood in the parking lot of Classic Laundrette, a few hundred feet from the billboard. "Why shouldn't they have a Spanish billboard?"

Someone please hand Leslie Merse a stupid sign. This is American you idot. Mexicans who do not comprehend English are here in our country illegally.

I just posted this on another blog: "MacDonald's not only is loaded with illegal alien employees but they're targeting them for sales too. While I applaud selling greaseburgers and greasefries to illegals, I found this billboard offensive. It's clearly MacDonald's right to put up the sign but it's also our right to object. A boycott is out of the question because most clear thinking conservatives gave up MacDonalds years ago."

As an afterthought, the primary reason I steered my family away from this awful place is concern for their health. We're seeing many nasty diseases spread by food preparers and handlers, particularly Hepatitis A. Vaccinations against Hepatitis A now are required within 50 miles of the border and recommended for everyone.

Maybe they are in spanish because they are the ones spreading it. When I take the MBTA I use a kleenex or something and do not touch anything too many germs and god only knows what diseases.

We have Spanish billboards all over town, including McDonalds and others.