Are you too gringo? Latino channel Mun2 wants to know.

by Carmen Van Kerckhove

I just read in Ad Age about a new ad campaign by NBC Universal-owned Hispanic cable channel Mun2, which asks its target audience, bilingual, bicultural young Latinos, whether they are becoming “too gringo.” You can watch all three spots here.

In one spot, two young Latino men operating an ice-cream truck pursue girls who run off with their oversize decorative ice-cream cones but the guys are blocked by a fence. The voice-over asks: “Is your gringo diet killing your Latin skills? Jump fences like you know we can.” One of the men sails over the fence like a superhero; then he says, “Now I feel like an hombre again.”

In another spot, a Latino youth is president of the U.S., facing a crisis over weapons of mass destruction. But it’s just a daydream, as he sits in a classroom at school. “Is your American dream becoming too gringo?” the voice-over asks. “Instead of dreaming about war, dream about nicer things.” In the last shot, he has gone from president to gardener and is clipping a hedge.

Here’s another spot from the campaign:

So what do you think? Is this effective inside-joke type humor? Or are they just perpetuating stereotypes?

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