Beer is the beverage of choice for Hispanics.

Beer is the alcohol of choice for Hispanics in the United States, a new study shows.

"This is important to know, because once we can identify a type of beverage that is more associated with risky drinking, such as binge drinking, then prevention policies can be developed to target that beverage and that type of drinking," study corresponding author Raul Caetano, a professor of epidemiology and regional dean (Dallas) at The University of Texas School of Public Health, said in a news release issued by the study's publisher.

The findings were expected to be published in the January issue ofAlcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

Researchers surveyed 5,224 adults from households in Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Houston and Los Angeles about their drinking habits.
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Beer was the preferred beverage of all Hispanics, regardless if they were of Mexican-American, Puerto Rican, Cuban American or South/Central American heritage. Of male Hispanic beer drinkers, the beverage constituted 52 percent to 72 percent of their total alcohol consumption. Among Hispanic women who drank beer, it made up 32 percent to 64 percent of their total consumption.

"One difference we found was that wine was closely associated with binge drinking among Cuban American and South/Central American women, more so than beer," Caetano said. "Furthermore, Puerto Ricans and Mexican-Americans seemed to drink more than the other two groups, and thus would be more at risk for alcohol-related problems."

Caetano said this knowledge is helpful, because many people think beer is a "safer or less harmful beverage" than wine or hard liquor.

"It is true that the alcohol content in beer is lower than that of liquor, but what the study showed is that beer is the beverage most associated with binge drinking, which is a dangerous way to drink alcohol because of the impairment associated with such a high number of drinks: five for men and four for women," he said.

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has more about alcohol abuse.

SOURCE:Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, news release, Nov. 3, 2008

1.95

That's the price of a gallon of gas here in the valley.....

Probably the lowest in the country....

Premios MTV - Radio

One thing that I particularly found interesting about "Los Premios MTV", is that it was broadcast live not only on television, but on the radio as well. Here in the valley, we are lucky enough to share radio waves with Mexico. To be honest, most of the radio stations in the valley are based in Mexico.

One in particular, Exa FM, partnered with MTV to broadcast the award show. What I also found interesting was that a lot of the "foul language" was not censored. I wonder if the FCC has control over what is broadcast on American airwaves by stations based out of the country. Hmmm...

Anywho, Exa FM broadcast the show LIVE to 9 countries, in its 56 markets (including Texas, Arizona, and California.) I actually listened to the show while driving home from school. I found it pretty neat and convenient.

I leave you with XIMENA XARIÑANA performing with one of my favorite bands... Zoe...

MTV Latinoamérica - Premios MTV

Last night was the celebration for the 15th annual Premios MTV for MTV Latinoamérica. The event took place in Gudalajara, Mexico with performances by Katy Perry, Belanova, Tokio Hotel, Metallica, Zoe and Ximena Sarinana.



Unlike other awards shows here in the U.S., Los Premios MTV is broadcasted LIVE to 18 Latin American countries, and the U.S. and Canada. Which makes it one of the largest televised shows targeting the 13-25 Hispanic consumer.

What I found interesting is how each act incorporated a Hispanic custom into their performances. Katy Perry, for instance, opened the show in an elegant Quinceanera dress symbolizing the 15th anniversary for MTV Latinoamérica!



For the first time in it's history, a German "Emo" band (Tokio Hotel) won the best song of the year for "Monsoon". (Mexico has the largest "Emo" scene outside the United States.) This tells a lot about the modern music scene in Latin America and is very valuable information for advertisers.



More to come.

Ari Borovoy

Esta chida esta canción.

(This song is sweet)

Black Kids

It's what I'm listening to.

Vote

Interesting Fact

$2 Billion advertising dollars were spent trying to reach the 4 Million people on the island of Puerto Rico.

That is the same amount advertisers spent on the 44 Million people in the US Hispanic Market.

What Gives?

BBVA goes mainstream.

Pop Quiz:

Who knows what BBVA stands for?
Who knows where BBVA is from?
Why is BBVA in the news?

Answers:

BBVA stands for Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria.
BBVA is a Spanish Bank and maintains a leadership position in Spain, Mexico and Latin America.
BBVA will become the fourth largest bank in the US within a few years.



Throughout the past few months, BBVA has begun a push into the American banking system. First they bought out Compass Bank and rebranded their American banking operations to BBVA Compass. After initially focusing on the Hispanic market in the U.S., Spain’s Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA is now preparing to go mainstream.

Spain’s second-largest financial company by market value after Banco Santander SA is developing an ambitious push into the Sun Belt region at a time when local rivals are retrenching after the collapse of the subprime-mortgage market.

Following the merger of State National Bank, Texas State Bank, Laredo National Bank and Compass Bank, BBVA's U.S. affiliate ranks as the fourth largest bank in Texas and among the top 25 largest banks in the U.S. based on deposit market share. The company has total assets of approximately $58.6 billion and operates 593 branches across a six state Sunbelt Region including: 328 in Texas, 91 in Alabama, 76 in Arizona, 44 in Florida, 33 in Colorado, and 21 in New Mexico.

Vans Mexico

Vans, by far, is one of the few American companies that have successfully targeted the young Mexican consumer. Vans are so popular in Mexico that you can even find street vendors selling them at ridiculous prices. Its interesting to note how Vans expanded into Mexico so succesfully.

They are the official sponsors of the X-Games Mexico. By doing so, they are telling the youth that its OK to skate and BMX (activities which are generally frowned upon in Mexico.)



Stores

There are 13 official Vans stores in Mexico. Half of them were built in the last 6 months. Unlike the US, it is rare to see standalone stores for one specific brand. Vans were usually sold by specialty retailers. However, as Mexico becomes more "American", were beginning to see the rise of major shopping malls and plazas. The transition from traditional Mexican shopping to that of American shopping is slowly beginning.

Warped Tour Sponsor

Vans did an excellent job in Branding a Vans Warped Tour Mexico. Very similar to the one in the US, the Vans Warped Tour is a touring music and extreme sports festival.. This year was the inaugural year for the Warped Tour Mexico.


Vans also sponsors a BMX team, a Skateboarding Team, and has a yearly Mexico Tour where the biggest names in skateboarding make their way to the capital and do what they do best, skate.

Recession? What Recession?

Coming back to the Valley has made me realize that the recession affecting most of the country is non-existant here in South Texas. Everywhere you turn, there is a new shopping center, new subdivisions, and farmland being turned into hip, urban "lifestyle centres".

This is very true in the Mcallen, Edinburg, and Mission area. According to a recent list from CNNMoney.com, McAllen, TX ranked as the #1 Fastest Growing Real Estate Market. The rankings include a twelve month growth projection of 4% with a median home price of $109,000. The second city listed comes nowhere near McAllen and has a projected twelve month growth of 2.7%. The article mentions the state of Texas is not feeling the housing crisis as hard as other states.

Mcallen also Ranked 2nd in the Nation for Income Growth and 1st in Job Growth by Forbes Magazine. The Valley is growing, but is it growing too fast for its own good?

Disney goes Hispanic....

Demi Lovato

Selena Gomez

The new faces of Disney

Being an Advertising major, I have to keep up with the latest, greatest, and hippest trends, products, and in some cases people. The girls that are blowing up the blogosphere the past couple of weeks are Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez.

They are quickly becoming the new faces of the Disney channel. Many dub these Texan girls as Miley Cyrus's replacement. What I find interesting about this duo is that they are both of Hispanic decent.

With the Hispanic population growing faster than the overall American population, it is very interesting to see how different brands will try to target this newly developing audience. The Hispanic population is also considerably younger than that of the general market. The purchasing power of Hispanics has surpassed many analysts expectations.

Here are some key facts from a Research and Markets report released in May.

- From 1996 to 2006, U.S. Hispanic purchasing power posted a compound annual growth rate of 6.96%.

- Forty-seven percent of the nation's purchasing power and 50% of the Hispanic population are concentrated in California and Texas.

- We expect Income-producing Hispanic households in the United States to represent 13.8% of the population by 2015.

U.S. Hispanic Purchasing Power:

U.S. Hispanic purchasing power surged to nearly $870 billion in 2008 and is projected to reach as much as $1.3 trillion by 2015. During the past decade, the rate of growth was more than two times the overall national rate. We estimate current Hispanic purchasing power to be at 9.3% of the total current U.S. purchasing power and project it to be 12% by 2015.


So lets see what Disney is doing to tap this emerging market.

Demi and Selena seem as if they are highly acculturated into the American lifestyle almost to the point of complete assimilation. (Which isn't a problem since the younger Hispanic population tends to be more assimilated.)

Demi and Selena have both played Hispanic characters in their respective TV and movie roles.

The Spanish language has been used in these shows and movies signaling a wider acceptance of bilingualism.

Disney is doing an excellent job in its attempt to target the Hispanic market. I think Disney will soon be one of the first to successfully target and court the acculturated Hispanic youth.

I leave you with a video of Selena Gomez in her latest music video.

Ciao Dieste!

So my internship at Dieste Harmel has come to an end. Dieste wouldn't have been the same without a certain few individuals. First off, Joanna. Joanna was the "other intern" that started this journey with me. BUT, she decided to go to Thailand in the middle of Summer and ditched me! She did bring me a Thai flag patch for my camera case or my messenger bag. Jessica was pretty SWEET also. She accompanied me to our favorite food court. In order to get to the food court we had to pass through a series of underground tunnels and through a few abandoned buildings. Lets just say that the journey was very reminiscent of the mall scene in Cloverfield. Brazil. Oh Brazil Brazil Brazil. The only things I understood from this guy was, "Eh Man" (when talking to me" and "Eh Chica" (when referring to any female in our "area". Brazil was fun and entertaining. Especially while singing Over the Rainbow for an entire day. I need to learn a little bit of Portuguese so that I can communicate with him if i ever come across him in the future.

Last night we had the 5th Annual Butterfly Rock Battle of the Bands benefiting the Veronica Leon Scholarship Fund. The event was a huge success. A ton of people from our sister Omnicom agencies showed up. Hopefully the Battle of the bands will only continue to grow as the years progress.


Unfortunately, Ho Downs arestill very popular in Texas.

Pine-Sol

The following ads were made for Pine-Sol at Dieste (the hispanic ad-agency im interning at). The first ad won the agency a lot of awards. Let me know what you guys think.

Play

Mademoiselle Juliette - Alizee (France)



Volare - Ximena Sariñana (Mexico) (I think shes my new favorite female singer)



Party Fowl - Andrew Del Torres (US/West Coast)



Oxford Comma - Vampire Weekend (US/East Coast)



Uno Los Dos - Miranda (Argentina) (Real People Used in the video)

Lake Popozao... HA

I find this rather entertaining.

China is so hot right now.

'nuff said

La Tour Eiffel.... eat your heart out!

This tower is located near my house in Dallas. I had no idea what it was or why it was there.


After a little research I found that it is a radio tower for the local High School.


The tower is massive and looks very similar to the Eiffel Tower.


Theres a pretty good view of Downtown Dallas from the top.

107

Today it was 107 degrees here in Dallas. Apparently its a record high. Its also been 10 straight days that North Texas has had 100+ degree temperatures. The sun set about 4 hours ago, and its still 91 degrees.

:)

I'm a Loaner

I wanted to let all of you guys know about Kiva (www.kiva.org), a non-profit that allows you to lend money to a specific low-income entrepreneur in the developing world.

You choose who to lend to - whether a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq - and as they repay their loan, you get your money back. It’s a powerful and sustainable way to empower someone right now to lift themselves out of poverty.

So to answer the question that EVERYONE asks me... "What do you do with your money."

This is the answer.

www.kiva.org

Check it out.