Pizza Patron's free deal for Spanish orders raises eyebrows
Ordering a pizza in Spanish has suddenly become a cultural hot button.
By Bruce Horovitz
USA TODAY (May 22, 2012)
Pizza
Patrón, a 104-unit, carry-out pizza chain headquartered in Dallas, is
raising eyebrows both inside and outside the Latino community with a
planned promotion to give away thousands of large pepperoni pizzas on
the evening of June 5 to folks who order in Spanish.
It can be broken Spanish. It can be first-time Spanish. But it has to be Spanish.
The
move comes at a time immigration and immigration reform remain
simmering election-year issues. One in every six people in the U.S. is
Latino, says the U.S. Census Bureau. From 2000 to 2010, the U.S.
Hispanic population expanded from 35.3 million to 50.5 million.
Critics of the free pizza promo are lashing out - including some in the Latino community.
"Maybe
they thought it was a cute thing to do, but I think it's
discrimination," says Marcela Gomez, president of Hispanic Marketing
Group, a Latino marketing firm in Nashville. "As an advertising agency, I
would never recommend this to my client."
One
conservative group doesn't like it, either. "It seems to punish people
who can't speak Spanish, and I resent that," says Peter Thomas, chairman
of the Conservative Caucus, which advocates English as the nation's
spoken language. "In public areas, people should be speaking English,
and that includes pizza parlors."
But
Andrew Gamm, brand director at Pizza Patrón, says it's all about
creating a buzz within the brand's target market: Hispanics. He says 70%
of its customer base is Spanish-speaking. "It makes perfect sense for
us," Gamm says. "We're trying to make our bond with the Hispanic
community stronger."
But
Pizza Patrón is no stranger to controversial promos. In 2007, it
promoted that fact it would start accepting (and still does) Mexican
pesos. That drew international attention, Gamm says, "and our executives
received some death threats."
Gamm
says the new promotion, which will last from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., is a
product-sampling effort. "Because we sell a $4.99 large pizza, many
people presume it's not good. So, sampling is one of the most successful
mechanisms we have to build our customer base." Gamm says he expects to
give away 80,000 pizzas.
Lisa
Navarrete, spokeswoman for the advocacy group National Council of La
Raza, says, "For people to get offended or upset at this seems a little
bit silly. It doesn't preclude anybody. Anyone can say, 'por favor.' "
Thanks for this information.
ReplyDeleteThis is not trivia. This is important and I have had conversations with many people about this.
These are little snapshots of reality !
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