From Reuters, via Yahoo News: Lawmakers seek to crack down on illegal immigrants. “Life for the estimated 10 million illegal immigrants living in the shadows in the United States could soon get even tougher as states and the federal government pass new legislation cracking down on them.” Tougher? Tougher? It wasn’t tough enough already? The article goes on with: “In several states, legislators have proposed and in some cases passed bills barring illegal immigrants and their families from receiving health, welfare and other public benefits.” Lovely. Yet another reason to make sure you go out and vote… to make sure that the people passing these laws understand we aren’t going to stand for them.
Hispanics and the 2004 Election – Population, Electorate and Voters, from Pew Hispanic Center. “Hispanics accounted for half of the population growth in the United States between the elections of 2000 and 2004 but only one-tenth of the increase in the total votes cast, according to a Pew Hispanic Center analysis of new data from the U.S. Census Bureau… As a result, a population increase of 5.7 million Latinos between 2000 and 2004 yielded only 2.1 million new eligible voters. In addition, Hispanic voter participation rates lag those of whites or blacks so that the number of Hispanic voters increased by just 1.4 million.” We have to do better. We have got to do better. We absolutely have to do better, or else.
Mexican food, as an industry, is doing well, according to a Hispanic Business article. In Eating up Profits they write: “Manufacturers on the Hispanic Business 500 face the same ups-and-downs as other producers, with one major exception: People still want to eat. Quite simply, consumers are eating more Mexican food. They also are eating more frozen food.” Good news, indeed. Of course, to those of us who have noticed the onset of taquerÃas and the additional salsa choices in the grocery story it’s nothing new.
I recently wrote about the Michael J. Fox Foundation’s targeting Hispanics for an educational campaign about Parkinson’s Disease then I came across this article: Alzheimer’s Research Recruitment, Treatments, Public Education Must Account For Cultural Beliefs at Hispanic Ad. “There are significant differences in awareness and beliefs about Alzheimer’s disease among ethnic groups, and health education programs should be tailored to account for these different understandings, according to new research presented today at the first Alzheimer’s Association International Conference on the Prevention of Dementia.” Didn’t I just say something similar about the misconceptions surrounding Parkinson’s? Different cultures have different knowledge bases, so you have to approach them differently. This is not an earth-shattering fact, just common sense. It’s also a fact that should be applied to all marketing and communications. If you don’t target your market accurately, you’re never going to achieve your goal. It doesn’t matter if your goal is to educate about a disease or sell a cell phone.
