So some of you may have heard of this Mexican beer called Tecate. I haven't tried it but I'm sure it could be good. What I have a problem with is the commercials for this product and the fact that the current ad campaign for Tecate is, in my opinion, irresponsible.
Basically there is this whole series of radio ads where you've got several Mexican Americans at a party or something along those lines and one guy says something to the effect of "Yo, padre, pass me a beer." Then the other guy gets all offended and goes off on the first dude. Why? Because Tecate is NOT beer (beer is spoken as a sneer and with utter contempt), its cerveza. At this point the offending Mexican American says "But beer and cerveza is the same thing! What's the big deal?" The second guy then goes into several examples.
"Would you rather put ketchup on your tacos or salsa."
"Is it the same thing if I tell my wife "I love you" or "Te amo"?
After each example the offending dude will say "No" in a very sullen way that indicates he is ashamed for having made such a grave error and then cheerily ask for a cerveza and be congratulated for having seen the sense of the matter. The party then continues; the uncomfortable situation has been resolved and they can get back to hanging out.
A second radio commercial I heard recently is basically a representative from Tecate talking about the product but every time he utters the word "beer" it is bleeped out because after all... the assumption that this Mexican CERVEZA can be refereed to as beer is apparently insulting.
Now why do I have a problem with this? What the hell are they trying to accomplish here? It's like they are sending a clear message to all Mexican Americans that says. "You need to resist integrating yourselves into American culture. Don't use their "lesser" language for even simple things like alcohol." Whats next? Are Mexican Americans going to start being encouraged to not use other English words? Will a Mexican car company start having commercials that refer to their product as "coche" and imply that it's offensive and on par with treason to call their vehicle a "car".
Since I'm a white guy, all this probably makes me look like a complete fucking racist. That's just how the cookie crumbles for me I suppose. I'll finish by saying this.
Tecate stop your irresponsible ad campaign. All it does is encourage Mexican Americans to resent American culture. You should be encouraging integration, not campaigning against it.
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Especially troubling to me is the salsa-ketchup comparison. Waaaay off base with that one. Those are two completely different things. I've had Tecate. It's by no means a bad beer, but it's definitely fucking beer. It's not nearly distinct enough to have some separate moniker. In fact, it's kind of reminiscent of many American beers. Anyhow, I don't think the people at Tecate were trying to start any kind of a cultural war so much as they were trying to put out the idea that their product is somehow vastly unique and special as compared to American beers. I'm personally not offended by this, but still... the salsa-ketchup thing was way off.
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