Spending for Spanish Advertising for Elections Lacks

Earlier on in the day, the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, often referred to as the USHCC, released a report. The report was part of the Speak Our Language project and in the report; it was found that there is still a lack of advertisements in the Spanish language, especially when it comes to advertisements for the upcoming election, which will take place during the month of November. There are certain states that are particularly populated with the most Hispanics and even still, those specific states are not seeing many Spanish-language advertisements for the election, which is quite odd. The study showed that between the months of April through September, political advertisement spending was at $358,898,420. Of that total amount, only around $16,410,140 was spent on Spanish advertisements, representing a total of only 4.57 percent of the advertisements for the election.

The period of April through September represents what is commonly referred to as the general election season. The study reviewed political advertisements that are featured on television in a number of different states, including Arizona, Florida, California, New Mexico, Texas, and Virginia, along with a few others. The President of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Javier Palomarez, has said, “Political commentators from both sides of the aisle have said repeatedly that 2012 is the ‘year of the Hispanic voter.’ Hispanic voters are poised to play a decisive role in some of the most hotly contested battleground states from Nevada to Florida.” He also said, “But while political advertising spending records are being shattered, neither political party is investing a comparable percentage of their advertising dollars to reach these voters. The difference between rhetoric and action is striking and, frankly, troubling.

Both parties, Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama, are spending only a small percent of their advertising budgets on Spanish-language advertisements but there are several differences between these two parties as well. For the Obama campaign, a total of around 9 percent of advertisement dollars went toward Spanish-language media while only 4 percent of Romney’s campaign advertisement dollars were spent on this form of media. The Democratic candidates seem to be spending a bit more of their advertising dollars on Spanish-language media and advertising, especially when compared to the Republican candidates, even in the Senate races. The President of CMAG, Ken Goldstein, has said, “Historically, Spanish-language advertising has represented a relatively small share of all political dollars.” He also said, “This year, there has been a great deal of speculation that we would see a significant jump in Spanish-language ad spending. That may yet happen, but so far this cycle it appears that ad spending is closer to historical norms than any sort of break out year.”