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Genre Analysis of Hispanic Athlete Commercials
In professional sports, promoting or advertising an athlete is a billion dollar industry. One
way teams and networks promote these athletes is through commercials. On most occasions the
commercial will feature the athlete talking to the audience and promoting the product being sold.
When the featured athlete is Hispanic, and is not familiar with the language and culture, the
director must use unique strategies to effectively promote the product. In my analysis I will
describe and analyze three commercials with Hispanic athletes and show that there is a specific
genre. I am interested in writing the analysis because many of the top athletes in today’s
American sports leagues are Hispanic, and after watching a few commercials featuring Hispanic
athletes, I noticed drastic differences between commercials featuring Hispanic athletes and
American athletes. In my analysis I will employ the methodology of Generic Criticism to show
that there is a genre of Hispanic athlete commercials. My analysis contains a description of the
artifacts, a description of the method of criticism, substantive and stylistic elements and finally
the connection between the artifacts I analyzed in the genre of Hispanic athlete commercials.
Requirements of Genre
In order for the three television commercials analyzed, to be considered in the genre of
Hispanic athlete commercials there are a number of requirements that must be present.
(1) The athlete featured in the commercial must be born in what is qualified as a Hispanic
country. This includes countries where the native langue is Spanish and located on the
continent of North or South America. There are many professional athletes who
second langue is Spanish however these athletes are mostly born in the United States
and familiar with the culture.
(2) The commercial must be aired in the United States, and must have an athlete who
plays for an American sports franchise. Some commercials that feature Hispanic
athlete’s air in Mexico or South America and do not capture the uniqueness of
appealing to an American audience. Therefore cannot be included in the genre.
(3) The Athlete must speak English during the commercial.
Description of Artifacts
The artifacts I have chosen to analyze are three television commercials featuring Hispanic
athletes. They include; Chrysler commercial featuring Detroit Tigers baseball player Miguel
Cabrera, Coors Light Beer commercial featuring retired Boston Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez,
and Dallas Mavericks commercial featuring Dallas Mavericks basketball ball player J.J Barea.
The commercial featuring Miguel Cabrera “Road to Greatness” advertises the new
Chrysler 300 car. The ad starts with the song Everloving by Moby playing in the Backdrop. After
a few seconds a deep voiced narrator begins speaking about hard work and dedication. On the
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screen youth baseball players practice in a backyard. Directly after, Miguel Cabrera is shown
lifting weights and hitting in the batting cage. For the remainder of the commercial the young
kids playing baseball and Cabrera improving his game switch back and forth. The narrator
continues to speak about hardship, shortcuts and what it means to achieve success. Suddenly the
Chrysler 300 is shown driving down the street. The overall theme of the advertisement is hard
work pays off, and to never forget where your success started. Throughout the entire commercial
Cabrera doesn’t say one word.
The commercial featuring Pedro Martinez was shot in 2006 and advertises Coors Light
Beer. The setting of the ad is a press conference after a game. Three men with cans of Coors
Light imitate reporters. In the commercial the fake reporters ask Martinez questions such as if he
prefers “Coors Light in a can or a bottle” and “Do you want one?” The response of Martinez is
from an actual press conference although is edited to make the conversation seem natural. This
trend continues throughout the rest of the commercial. Martinez’s answers are always short and
concise with a thick Spanish accent.
The final commercial I analyzed features Dallas Mavericks basketball player J.J Barea.
The commercial starts with a man browsing through a rack of jerseys in the Dallas Mavericks
team store. The enthused fan chooses a Dirk Nowitzki jersey from the Rack and turns to go to
the checkout desk. When he turns around J.J Barea himself is standing in his way with a
disgusted look on his face. Barea then tips the rack of Jerseys over and the camera zooms out
showing Barea as a barrier between the fan and the checkout desk. The next scene shows the fan
purchasing several J.J Barea jerseys and “NEVER SAY NO TO J.J” appearing on the screen.
Barea doesn’t have a speaking role in the commercial.
Generic Description
To better understand the meanings of the commercials analyzed. My analysis involves
substantive and stylistic elements. In this stage of the analysis I will find similarities between the
three commercials and connect the similarities. The similarities will form a genre of commercials
with Hispanic athletes.
To begin Hispanic athletes in the commercials have little to no dialogue. The athletes
have no dialogue because English is not there first langue. If the athletes were to speak in the
commercials it would expose their unfamiliarity to the English langue and be much less
appealing to the audience. In the Caberea commercial he’s shown only to the audience as a
visual figure lifting weights and playing baseball. In the Bud Light commercial featuring Pedro
Martinez, the director uses an interesting technique to hide Martinez’s lack of English. Instead of
not having Martinez speak at all he uses a recoding from a press conference and edits it into the
commercial, allowing the director to still use Martinez as a marketing strategy without actually
having him present. During the Dallas Mavericks commercial J.J Barea is seen as a visual figure
and doesn’t have a speaking role. J.Js appearance is all the commercial needs to promote the
product. In contrast a commercial shot in 2012, featuring American basketball player Lebron
James. In the commercial James speaks frequently, and is very active with the audience. He is
shown shooting around and speaking into the camera comfortably. In all three instances the
Directors of the commercials hide the athlete’s inability to speak English fluently. They all use
the strategy of not having the athlete speaking however still use the athlete as marketing, without
exposing their lack of the English language.
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If the athlete in the commercial is not speaking to the audience how is the product being
advertised? The question introduces the second similarity of the three commercials. In all of the
commercials in order to replace the lack of speaking by the athlete the director always employs
pathos to capture the audience’s attention and to make up for the lack of dialogue . In the
Cabrera commercial, the deep voiced motivational speaker, and the dramatic music evokes a
certain emotion to the audience. Without Cabrera speaking the motivational tone and music
captures the audience’s attention and Cabrera’s recognizable figure still allows the audience to
connect Cabrera and Chrysler. The other two commercials use humor as pathos. In the
Martinez’s commercial the director puts most of the acting in the factious reporters. These fake
reporters are a collection of middle aged sports fans holding cold beer. They ask Martinez
questions in a comical tone, and when Martinez answers seriously, his response coming from an
actually press conference following a loss, the contrast in emotions adds humor to the
commercial. These journalists act shocked by Martinez’s response as if they are unaware of the
obvious comedy occurring. In the J.J Barea commercial the tone is similar. A shocked sports fan
cannot believe what he is seeing when Barea of all people stands before him at the checkout line
to purchase a jersey. The coincidence that a professional athlete would be in his own teams store
makes the commercial comical. Again Barea has no dialogue and pathos is used to make the
commercial appealable to the audience. Purely Bareas reaction to the fan wanting another
player’s jersey over his is hilarious.
A Third similarity is all of these commercials were shot in the Past 10 years. The
Hispanic population has grown substantially over the past decade and the white population is
expected to lose majority by 2043 (Huffington Post). These commercials illustrate the growth of
Hispanic Americans in the United States. More Hispanics means more Hispanic sports fans,
which mean more Hispanic commercials. After researching Hispanic athlete advertisements
more specifically is was impossible to find an ad that wasn’t made in the past 10 years.
Organizing Principles
To summarize there are enough similar substantive and situational elements to form a specific
genre they are listed below.
(1) In all of the commercials analyzed the athlete featured in the commercial has no or very
little dialogue. (2) The director uses pathos to get emotion from the audience and make
the commercial visual appealing and interesting to watch. (3) All of the commercials
were filmed in the past 10 years, directly correlating to the increase of Hispanic sports
fans in the United States.
Conclusion
These commercials effectively show enough similarities to create a genre for commercials with
Hispanic athletes. Although not many, these similarities are unique enough to draw the
conclusion that there should be a separate genre for commercials with Hispanic athletes. If the
increase of filming commercials with Hispanic athletes, directly correlates to the increase of
Hispanics living in the United States, then it shows the cultural direction the country is moving.
The directors effectively try’s to hide the Hispanic athlete’s lack of the English langue, which
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exemplifies the closed mindedness of Americans and how easily they adapt to other cultures.
This genre can help tell us something about American society today.
Works Cited
"Never Say No to JJ (Dallas Mavericks)YouTube. YouTube, 26 Nov. 2010. Web. 04 Dec. 2013.
"Miguel Cabrera and Chrysler "Road to Greatness" Southern Maine Motors Saco Maine Portland
Boston." YouTube. YouTube, 26 Oct. 2013. Web. 04 Dec. 2013.
"Coors Light Commercial- Pedro Martinez." YouTube. YouTube, 06 Dec. 2010. Web. 04 Dec.
2013.
Moreno, Carolina. "Hispanic Population Facts: A Look At Latinos By The Numbers
(SLIDESHOW)." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 18 Sept. 2013. Web. 03 Dec.
2013.