A few weeks ago, presidential candidate Mitt Romney was being criticized for his lazy attempt at reaching Spanish-speaking voters. He released a set of Spanish campaign ads that were a direct Spanish translation of his English ads, which made them seem sloppy and carelessly targeted.
However, Romney took the advice of the experts and came out with a brand new set of Spanish campaign ads. The ads were created specifically for Spanish-speaking voters and they contain imagery of Latinos in America professing their support for the Republican candidate. The move could be crucial in his securing of the Latino vote, but Obama already made a similar move.
Obama Released More Spanish Ads Than Romney
Romney’s attempt at improving the quality of his Spanish ads is a smart move in its own right, but Obama might have made the same move in a timelier manner. Obama released fifteen new campaign ads for the 2012 election, and six of them were in Spanish.
Out of the eight new ads for Romney’s campaign, only one was in Spanish. Not only did Obama release more ads that employed a Spanish translation agency before hitting the airwaves, he also secured a large number of Latinos in America for his vote in 2007.
There’s a good chance many of these voters will stick with him, so Romney’s attempts might prove to be futile.
Romney Also Launched Spanish Campaign Site
Opposition aside, Romney’s attempts at securing the Latino vote were succinct in that they included a new Spanish campaign website. The site is called JuntosconRomney.com, and on it visitors can watch the new Spanish-language campaign ads.
They can also read statistics in Spanish about Latino unemployment and Obama’s major mistakes. Instead of using a service like Google translate to get the translation to Spanish of Romney’s campaign site, Spanish-speaking voters can get the information they need on the Spanish site.
In the heat of the Presidential election, candidates need to do everything they can to secure as many votes as possible. Romney tripped up by not spending enough time on his first official Spanish translation campaign ads, but he tried making up for it with a new set of them.
Whether or not his efforts will pay off is yet to be seen, but it might be difficult to tear these voters away from Obama after his comprehensive and extended efforts for the Latino vote in the last election.