Thread: Unraveling Mystery...MATT, Free Trade Alliance,NAIPN

Bromley Founder's New Agency Prepares Media Blitz for May 5
May 04, 2006
By Cara Marcano

MediaAmexica, a new advertising agency launched by Bromley Communications founder Lionel Sosa, is set to begin a massive direct-response campaign to promote the newly founded non-profit lobby group Mexicans and Americans Thinking Together.

The campaign, which kicks off May 5, is expected to capitalize on the growing passions of Mexicans and Americans in the wake of the immigration protests of the past few weeks.

Mexicans & Americans Working Together was organized by Sosa and funded by anonymous private donors.



The national media blitz includes television, radio, print and outdoor buys. According to sources, the budget for the first leg of the campaign is estimated at between $1 million and $5 million.

The campaign's objective is to drive 18- to 45-year-olds to the organization's Web site, www.matt.org, which is set to launch tomorrow. The site was designed by Media8, a Miami-based Hispanic interactive agency. Visitors to the site will be asked questions, the answers to which will be used to formulate polls and build databases, says L. Brent Gilmore, founder of San Antonio-based ad agency Periscope Depth Inc. Visitors will not be required to offer any personal information other than their e-mail addresses.

"We want the ideas, not the personal information," Gilmore says. "We're not asking them what party they are in or whether they are registered to vote. We will ask them their age, gender, educational attainment, possibly their income, and if they are members of any other organization or church group."

Nine 30-second television spots have been designed for the campaign by a consortium of Hispanic agency professionals working with Sosa, including Periscope, DS Pr Inc. and Mas Consulting, a creative agency with offices in Mexico and San Antonio run by former Bromley exec Cesar Martinez. Sosa's wife, a former executive at Garcia LKS, which is now San Antonio-based Garcia 360, also will work on the campaign and is involved with the new agency.

According to Gilmore, the television spots will feature testimonials from real people with connections to Mexico and the United States. Ads will run in English on the top cable networks in San Antonio; San Jose, Calif.; and Chicago, and on shows such as CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight.

The radio buys are all DJ "live-read" buys on Spanish-language stations only because those DJs "are the ones who organize the protests and boycotts," Gilmore says. "What we really want to do is harness their power. We're giving them talking points and suggested scripts."

The out-of-home portion of the campaign includes billboards and bus shelters in San Antonio, Chicago and San Jose. Print ads will run in magazines including Hispanic Business, Hispanic and Hispanic Trends, and in English-language newspapers including The Chicago Tribune, The San Jose Mercury News and The Chicago Sun Times. Bilingual ads also will run in the newspaper El Observador of San Jose. In-flight magazines for Continental, American, Southwest and Mexicana airlines also will feature the ads.

Following the first leg of the campaign, which runs through July 4, the membership organization will launch a second phase to kick off on Mexican Independence Day, Sept. 16. That campaign will also run in Mexico.

Since his days as head of Bromley, Sosa has come out of retirement several times in the past few years to work on the Hispanic portions of the political campaigns of President George W. Bush, his father and President Ronald Reagan.

A provocative, bilingual advertising campaign, seen recently on billboards, buses and bus shelters around San Jose and Gilroy, is urging South Bay residents to ponder simply: Mexicans & Americans Thinking Together. Mexicanos y Americanos Pensando Juntos.

The spare blue-and-white posters, also seen in black-and-white dioramas at Mineta San Jose International Airport, are the latest fodder in the raging national debate about immigration reform.

Instead of focusing on National Guard soldiers amassing at border walls, the advertisement blitz is asking people to participate in an online dialogue about relations between Mexico and the United States. The goal is to shift the conversation to ways the two countries may help the other solve their mutual problems -- rather than focusing on the unknown future of an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.

``This whole immigration issue is really about how we don't really understand each other,'' said Lionel Sosa, the retired advertising guru from Texas who is spearheading the project, ``and how we need to work together as citizens of two countries.'' Since its launch on Cinco de Mayo, www.matt.org, a non-profit, non-partisan group based in Texas, has logged a half-million visits and registered 30,000 members, Sosa said. Most of the traffic is in the discussion forum, where people vent, Sosa said, taking on a wide range of topics about Mexico and the United States.

Immigration is the topic of the moment, but the site's goal is to tackle other matters critical to both countries -- trade and the economy, the environment, society and culture -- issues, he said, at the heart of the current immigration debate.

``Let's do a think-tank for the common people, not just for academics and philosophers, where people can put their ideas on the table, where they can make a difference,'' Sosa said.

But opponents of illegal immigration, like San Jose small-business owner Roberta Allen, said the present issue with Mexico is clear-cut.

``The reason we have a problem with Mexico right now is they're sending so many illegals here,'' said Allen, the San Jose organizer of a counter-protest to the May 1 ``Day Without Immigrants'' national rally. She has not seen the ads.

``As far as legal immigrants, there's no problem,'' Allen said.

The Web site and the advertising blitz are the brainchild of a half-dozen wealthy businessmen from San Antonio, Mexicans and Americans, who felt that in the current political climate, there was little discussion about cross-border relations. For now, the backers of matt.org have declined to be identified or be interviewed.

The advertising campaign in English and Spanish, which includes the posters and billboards, and radio and TV spots, has been the vehicle to draw people to the Web site.

In all, the ads are placed in 18 bus shelters in San Jose and on 40 buses, 15 billboards and three airport dioramas.

San Jose delivery truck driver Jose Renteriah, 50, who sat recently under a bus shelter on Santa Clara Street near 20th Street, eye-level with one of the outdoor posters, praised the campaign's goal of a dialogue, but was skeptical of its impact.

``Yeah, talking about this is good,'' said Renteriah, who has not visited the Web site. ``But there will always be racism. To me that's the problem.''

Sosa said ideas gleaned from matt.org would be converted into policy proposals, academic papers or perhaps the seeds of congressional legislation. For example, one member suggested car passports to simplify the process of legal crossings for people doing business and residents of both countries. Another idea that emerged from the online discussion was development of senior homes in Mexico catering to American retirees.

``It's a forum only for solutions,'' said the 67-year-old Sosa, who founded the country's largest Latino advertising agency.

The founders of matt.org also hope to launch a for-profit component, mattbiz.com, catering to business and trade between the U.S. and Mexico, Sosa said. Details of this venture are still being worked out.

The three-city $3 million advertising campaign was launched on Cinco de Mayo and will continue to July 4 in San Jose, San Antonio and Chicago. The cities were chosen for their large populations of Mexican-Americans. In San Jose, almost one-third of the city's population is Latino, a large majority of which, 84 percent, is Mexican, according to the U.S. Census.

``It makes sense that Mexican-Americans would want to be a part of this conversation in a different way, that they'd feel the need for separate space,'' said Larisa Casillas, policy director for Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network in San Jose. ``Because so much of the rhetoric is directed at Mexico.''

Casillas said she heard one of the radio spots last week, and thought that ``it's exciting to see something being done, that there's a group working on this particular issue.''

Bruno Figueroa, consul general of the Mexican Consulate in San Jose, said a few weeks ago he saw the ads in the San Jose Mercury News and a few Spanish-language newspapers. He said he also saw the billboards.

``I was positively surprised,'' Figueroa said. ``The kind of dialogue that this association is promoting does not exist. It's very different from all the talk about building walls and having troops at the border.''

Sosa hatched the idea with a group of Mexican and American executives. Though the group originally planned to launch a commercial site, the wave of immigrant demonstrations caused it to develop a site to promote dialogue instead. By late last week, MATT had drawn nearly 400,000 clicks. Though some have questioned if MATT is truly nonpartisan, given Sosa's Republican ties, he insists that "politics is totally out of the way on this."

NCLR's governing Board of Directors represents the constituency it serves and includes 26 elected members. Bylaws require that the Board include representatives of various geographic regions and nationality groups, that half the Board represent Affiliates or have identifiable constituencies, and that the Board include equal representation of men and women. The NCLR Board Chair is Mónica Lozano, Publisher and CEO of La Opinión, the nation's largest Spanish-language daily which is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.

Executive Committee
Chair


Mónica Lozano, La Opinión, Los Angeles, California

First Vice Chair


Andrea Bazán-Manson, Triangle Community Foundation, Raleigh, North Carolina

Second Vice Chair/Secretary


Daniel Ortega, Roush, McCracken, Guerrero, Miller & Ortega, Pheonix, AZ

Treasurer


Ernesto "Gene" Ortega, Rural Housing Inc., Albuquerque, NM




Salvador Balcorta, Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe, El Paso, Texas

Hon. Phyllis Gutiérrez Kenney, Representative, Seattle, Washington

Herminio Martínez, Bronx Institute, Bronx, New York

Elba I. Montalvo, Committee for Hispanic Children and Families, New York, New York

Arturo Valenzuela, Georgetown University, Washington, DC

General Membership
Tom Castro, Border Media Partners, LLC, Houston, TX

Dorene Dominguez, Vanir Construction Management, Sacramento, California

Patricia Fennell, Latino Community Development Agency, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Maria Gomez, Mary’s Center for Maternal and Child Care, Washington, D.C.

Hon. Arabella Martinez, Oakland, California

Warren Maruyama, Hogan & Hartson, LLP, Washington, D.C.

Maricela Monterrubio Gallegos, Galt, California

Hon. Rafael E. Ortega, Ramsey County Commissioner, St. Paul, Minnesota

Jorge Plasencia, RadioCadena Univision, Coral Gables, FL

Maria Pesqueira, Mujeres Latinas en Acción, Chicago, Illinois

Robin Read, National Foundation for Women Legislators, Inc., Washington, D.C.

Hon. Felipe Reinoso, Bridge Academy, Bridgeport, Connecticut

Arturo S. Rodriguez, United Farm Workers of America, Keene, California

Isabel Rubio, Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama, Birmingham, Alabama

Juan Romagoza, Clinica del Pueblo, Washington, DC

Angela Sanbrano, Central American Resource Center, Los Angeles, CA

Lionel Sosa, Sosa Consultation & Design, Floresville, TX

Isabel Valdés, Isabel Valdés Consulting, Palo Alto, California

Hon. Arturo Valenzuela, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.

Anselmo Villrreal, La Casa de Esperanza, Inc., Waukesha, WI

Directors Emeriti
Rita DiMartino, Washington, D.C.

Herman Gallegos, Galt, California

R. P. Bob Sanchez, Esq., McAllen, Texas

Gilbert R. Vasquez, Vasquez and Company, Los Angeles, California

The article is divided into four pages on the web.
Here is an excerpt from page 3:

"During the 2000 election, Bush previewed a campaign
video from ad-maker Lionel Sosa that used
emotion-laden themes to woo Latinos.

As he watched, Sosa recalled, Bush's face lighted up.
"How much do you need for this?" Bush asked as the two
men sat with Rove in the governor's mansion in Texas,
Sosa said.

Sosa replied that it would take $3 million. According
to the ad-maker, Bush then turned to Rove, saying:
"Give him five."

Four years later, Sosa produced a variation of that
video for the 2004 campaign that was mailed to Latino
voters across the country.

The video includes images that would probably rile
those who today are calling for the most restrictive
immigration laws. At one point, Bush is shown waving a
Mexican flag. The footage was shot, Sosa said, during
a Mexican Independence Day parade in San Antonio in
1998, when Bush was running for reelection as
governor.

The five-minute video, narrated by Bush, opens with an
image of him fishing on his property near Crawford,
Texas, as he essentially described millions of
Americans who populate his home state as the true
foreigners in someone else's native land.

"About 15 years before the Civil War, much of the
American West was northern Mexico," Bush says in the
video. "The people who lived there weren't called
Latinos or Hispanics. They were Mexican citizens,
until all that land became part of the United States.

"After that, many of them were treated as foreigners
in their own land," Bush adds."

THE CULTURAL COLLABORATIVE STEERING COMMITTEE
Co-Chairs:
Mayor Edward D. Garza
Judge Nelson W. Wolff
John Adams, Assoc. Exec. Director for Planning, UT Institute of Texan Cultures at San Antonio
Marco A. Barros, Executive Director, San Antonio Area Tourism Council
Melvin L. Braziel, President & CEO, San Antonio Housing Authority
Thomas F. Cannon, Dir., Tourism Management Program, University of Texas at San Antonio
Hector J. Cardenas, Vice President, Alta Vista Neighborhood Association
Mary Christine Castro, Communities Organized for Public Service
Rosemary Catacalos, Executive Director, Gemini Ink
Ramiro A. Cavazos, Director, City of San Antonio, Economic Development Department
William J. Chiego, Director, The Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum
Lila Cockrell, President, San Antonio Parks Foundation
John L. Collet, President, Collet International Inc
Meredith Coppolo, Member, San Antonio Cultural Arts Board
Mary P. Cruz, President, West San Antonio Chamber of Commerce
Michael De La Garza, Director of Client Services, Creative Civilization
Maria Lopez de Leon, Executive Director, National Association of Latino Arts and Culture
Henry Feldman, President & CEO, La Mansion del Rio Hotel
Bill FitzGibbons, Executive Director, Blue Star Contemporary Art Center
Roger O. Flores, Jr., San Antonio City Council, District 1
Tom Frost, III, Sr. Executive Vice President, Frost National Bank
Very Reverend David Garcia, Rector, Cathedral of San Fernando
Chave Gonzaba, Chair, Gonzaba Management Group
Malena Gonzalez-Cid, Executive Director, Centro Cultural Aztlan
Cathy Obriotti Green, Director of Public Relations, Zachry Construction Corporation
Joe L. Guinn, Vice President, PacifiCare
Ana M. "Cha" Guzmán, President, Palo Alto College
Patricia Hawk Wing, Executive Director, Native American Center of Texas, Inc.
Jon Hinojosa, Executive Director, SAY Sí
Nettie P. Hinton, Board of Directors, Neighborhood Resource Center
Peter M. Holt, CEO, HOLT CAT; Chairman, San Antonio Spurs
Sterling Houston, Artistic Director, Jump-Start Performance Co.
James C. Hu, President, Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce
Cunneen Ingmundson, Board Member, Government Canyon Natural History Association
Antoinette C. Jackson, Secretary of the Carver Community Cultural Center Development Board
Brenda L. Kingery, Artist
Joseph R. Krier, President & CEO, The Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce
Megan Kromer, Consultant
Claudia Ladensohn, Acting Chair, Texas Commission on the Arts
Jim LaVilla-Havelin, Young Artist Programs Director, Southwest School of Art & Craft
James M. LeFlore, Program Coordinator, Public Art & Design Enhancement Program, City of San Antonio Public Works
William Lewis III, Executive Director, Carver Community Cultural Center
James Lifshutz, President, Lifshutz Companies
Anna-Marie Lopez, President, 7 Records
Malcolm Matthews, Director, City of San Antonio Parks & Recreation Department
Jim McNutt, Independent Consultant
John Milam, President & CEO, VIA Metropolitan Transit
Bruce Miller, Executive Director, KellyUSA Business Park
Debbie Montford, Chair, Texas Cultural Trust Council
Toni Moorhouse, former City Council Representative
Lew Moorman, V.P. of Strategy & Corporate Development, Rackspace Managed Hosting
George W. Neubert, Director, San Antonio Museum of Art
Virginia S. Nicholas, Third Vice President, San Antonio Conservation Society
Al J. Notzon III, Executive Director, Alamo Area Council of Governments
Paula Owen, Director, Southwest School of Art & Craft
Linda M. Pace, Trustee, ArtPace, A Foundation for Contemporary Art, San Antonio
Felix N. Padrón, Executive Director, City of San Antonio Office of Cultural Affairs
Jackie Pepper, Kings Court Housing Foundation
Aaronetta Pierce, Board of Directors, Texas Cultural Trust Council
Mimi Quintanilla, Director, Witte Museum
Rick Reyna, Independent Consultant
Mark A. Richter, Director, Lyric Opera of San Antonio
Linda Rivas, President, SER Jobs for Progress, Inc.
Rudi R. Rodriguez, President, Texas Tejano.Com
Ricardo Romo, President, University of Texas at San Antonio
Richard Rosen, Executive Director, Magik Children's Theatre of San Antonio
Stephanie Sant'Ambrogio, Artistic Director, Cactus Pear Music Festival
John Phillip Santos, Author
Leslie Sapadin, Sr. Vice President, United Way of San Antonio
Sylvia Schmidt, Chair, San Antonio Cultural Arts Board
Diane Simpson, Managing Director, Holland & Davis, LLC
Terry Smith, Executive Director, Region 20 Education Service Center
Lionel Sosa, President, Sosa Consultation
Susan Spencer, President, San Antonio Business & Economics Society
Joci Straus, Chair, Las Casas Foundation
Juan Tejeda, Musician & Music Instructor, Palo Alto College
Melvin Tennant, Executive Director, City of San Antonio Convention & Visitors' Bureau
Maria Elena Torralva, Chair, Special Projects, Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center
Frank Villani, President, ARTS San Antonio
Joe R. Villarreal, Artist
Rebecca P. Waldman, Exec. Director, City of San Antonio Department of Asset Management
Thomas G. Wendorf, P. E., Director, City of San Antonio Public Works
Marc Wiegand, Attorney, Holland & Knight, LLP
Col. Clarence R. "Reggie" Williams USAF (Ret.), Exec. Dir. & CEO, San Antonio Area Foundation
Kenneth L. Wilson, President, Bank of America—San Antonio
Robert E. Zeigler, President, San Antonio College

"After that, many of them were treated as foreigners
in their own land," Bush adds."

This is where the idiot boy is wrong. They were foreigners NOT in their own land. The Mexican American war decided that. Now Bush wants to negate the treaty?? What a freaking idiot.

The sessions will be set up in a “town hall” format so participants will have the opportunity to dialogue and exchange ideas with the experts and key decision makers on this subject. Participants include industry representatives, immigration experts, community leaders, think tanks, policy and lawmakers. As a participant in this forum you will have the opportunity to contribute to the formulation of a sound policy on immigration reform.

PROGRAM AGENDA REGISTER ONLINE SPONSORSHIP INFO

Event Details:

Date: June 1 - 2, 2006
Time: June 1 (8 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.); June 2 (8 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.)
Reception: June 1 (5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.) Sponsored by Quan, Burdette & Perez, P.C.
Location: Westin Riverwalk Hotel, Navarro Ballroom, 420 W. Market, San Antonio, TX 78205
Cost: $275/person non-government rate; $250 government and non-profit rate. Call (210) 229-9036 to inquire about our group discounts.
Luncheon Only (Sen. Cornyn - June 2nd): $45 for members; $55 for non-members; Corporate tables of 10 available for $500
Sponsorship Opportunties:

Available at $5000, $2500 and $1000 levels
To view listing of sponsorship benefits, click here
Confirmed Seminar Speakers:

The Honorable John Cornyn - United States Senate
The Honorable Hector Osuna - Mexico Senate
Gustavo Mohar - Former Chief Negotiator for International Migration at the Mexican Foreign Ministry
The Honorable Leticia Van de Putte –Immigration Task Force, National Conference of State Legislators & Texas State Senator District 26
Gerardo Antonio Lopez Hernandez - Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare (Mexico)
Geronimo Gutierrez - Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Mexico)
Dr. Pia Orrenius – Senior Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
Tamar Jacoby – Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
Dr. Steve H. Murdock – Institute for Demographics and Social Economic Research
Angelo Amador – Director of Immigration Policy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Craig J. Regelbrugge – Sr. Director of Governmental Relations, American Nursery & Landscape Association
Marshall Fitz - Director of Advocacy, American Immigration Lawyers Association
Lee J. Teran - Director, Immigration and Human Rights Clinic at St. Mary’s University School of Law
Dennis Nixon - Alliance for Security and Trade
Steve Pringle - Texas Farm Bureau
Ray Prewett - Texas Citrus Mutual
Lionel Sosa - Mexicans & Americans Thinking Together (MATT.org)
Cesar Martinez - Mexicans & Americans Thinking Together (MATT.org)
Gordon Quan - Quan, Burdette & Perez, P.C.
Workshop Moderators Include:

Henry Cisneros - Chairman, CityView
Tom Frost, Frost Bank
Councilman Richard Perez - City of San Antonio
Raul Rodriguez - University of the Incarnate Word
Robbie Greenblum - Ilagan Bachman, P.C.
Honorable Judge Nelson Wolff, Bexar County (providing welcome remarks)
Bob Shivers - Shivers & Shivers
Special thanks to our forum sponsors:

The Alliance and the City of San Antonio International Affairs Department are planning a trade mission to participate in the ExpoLogistica Trade Show in Mexico City from May 29th - June 2nd.

The trade show attracts thousands of high level decision making executives in logistics, material handling, warehousing, operations, traffic, distribution and supply chain management.

The Alliance is participating in the trade show to promote Inland Port San Antonio to the many attendees from Mexico and Latin America. If you are interested in attending and exhibiting at the trade show, please call Noel Olguin at (210) 229-9036 ext. 22 or email nolguin@freetradealliance.org. Trade show dates are May 31 – June 2, 2006 at the Banamex Center in Mexico City.

More information on the show is available at www.expologistica.com

Dear Michael:

First, WELCOME ABOARD! We have a nice group of folks here, and if you have any questions, just private message me, or post them to the board and someone will do their best to find an answer.

Very interesting additions to this thread...I find the article on Sosa very interesting....I have something I found today where Sosa says something to the effect of, "When them over (Hispanics), get them to see you as strong and family values oriented, and the issue don't really matter." I will post that and some other things later.

PB

Thanks Pinto.........

I have been digging............. and the more I dig the more names that come up........ Seems he is heavily into the SA free trade allience.... I would imagine that his business partners are a few of them. It wouldn't surprise me if Sosa was behind the free trade allience......... or in partners with them.
It all seems to cushy over there with the public meetings......

Michael

Originally Posted by PintoBean

Dear Michael:

First, WELCOME ABOARD! We have a nice group of folks here, and if you have any questions, just private message me, or post them to the board and someone will do their best to find an answer.

Very interesting additions to this thread...I find the article on Sosa very interesting....I have something I found today where Sosa says something to the effect of, "When them over (Hispanics), get them to see you as strong and family values oriented, and the issue don't really matter." I will post that and some other things later.

PB