Kerry After Latino Vote With TV Ads

HouChron - Bush, Kerry campaigns know Latinos in swing states could decide election

The scene opens with a doting, older woman sitting at a table with her curly-headed grandson as she lovingly pastes photos of family members into a scrapbook.

"Grandma," the child asks in Spanish, "what's a Democrat?"

For the next 30 seconds, this television advertisement pitches the Democratic Party against a backdrop of strategic symbols in Hispanic culture -- family tradition, respect for the elderly, military service and educational achievement.

It's slick, entertaining and indicative of a more sophisticated approach to woo the nation's fastest-growing pool of potential voters.

el - Whoo-Hoo, One of Gore's many mistakes was mostly conceding the Latino media to the Bush campaign in swing states.

"The Kerry campaign just went up with our first ad in Florida, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada," said Armando Gutierrez, who also produced Spanish-language campaign ads for Gore and Clinton. "Bush has been up in those states for weeks now -- months in Florida. Bottom line ... no one has gone up this early before. In the case of the Kerry campaign, we'll be on the air non-stop now until the convention."

Research indicates most American Hispanics use both English and Spanish media -- how much of one or the other depends on things such as age, length of U.S. residency and comfort level with speaking English. But advertising in Spanish frequently resonates with Hispanics at a deeper level, even for those whose dominant language is English.