Terrible Marketing Campaigns -- Old El Paso

Mexico is a big country. And they have the same problems as other places--crime, unemployment, drugs, etc. etc. Just like the US. But judging by the commercials for Old El Paso, the only thing they really worry about is tacos:



Yeah, Mexican people are so obsessed with tacos that when a little girl makes a taco-related suggestion, she's hoisted on the community's shoulders and paraded around the public square like she just scored the winning gooooooooooal in the World Cup.





And, if you had never met a Mexican person and just went by the actors in these ads, you'd think that they were a race of people chiefly distinguished by a) their obsession with tacos, and b) their difficulty in finding simple solutions to taco-related problems. My god, how dumb are these characters, that when someone comes up with a "solution" like "why not have both?" they react as though she just figured out a cure for cancer? They even end these horrible ads with the tag line "true genius, Mexican style." What the fuck? How condescending is that? Like a Mexican couldn't be a regular genius like in math or something, but a good taco-based idea? Well, that counts as being a genius for "those people."

And you'd think after making one of these ads, they might take a step back and say, "you know, this feels a little racist, let's come up with a new campaign," but no. They just keep churning 'em out.


Also, I don't think they have crunchy taco shells in Mexico. When we were there, all the tacos were served in soft corn tortillas. I'm pretty sure the crunchy taco shell is an Norte Americano invention.