Presidential campaigns missing mark in ads for Latinos

Much has been written about the 21.3 million registered Latino voters that could make the difference in this year's presidential election, including a Time Magazine cover story in March. However, it seems both President Obama and Democratic Challenger Mitt Romney are both missing the mark when it comes to culturally-relevant approaches in their marketing, according to an article in the Seattle Times.

Neither campaign, the article states, has adopted the approach honed over the years by businesses targeting Spanish speakers — one that not only depicts Latinos in positive settings, but also reflects attention to cultural nuance.

Romney's ads appear to be direct translations of English ads with awkward translations of phrases.  The Obama campaign is doing considerably more with a Spanish-language website, a Twitter feed for Latinos, an English-language website targeted at Latinos and a Spanish-language website about the benefits of the Affordable Care Act. After Obama's order to stop deportations of young undocumented immigrants, the campaign put out an ad in Spanish featuring Miami-based television personality Cristina Saralegui, the article says. However, the campaign buy allocation is not keeping par with the changing demographics or the Latino makeup in key swing states.