“There’s a Fine Line Between Authenticity and Pandering": How ALTERED.LA is Cultivating an All-Inclusive ‘General Market’

In recent years this call for change has snowballed, as agencies, brands, and production companies began to recognise that this outdated view of the General Market was due a refresh. At the 2022 ANA Masters of Marketing conference, P&G’s chief brand officer, Marc Pritchard, called on the industry to "break the habitual mindset that there is a general market”, insisting that a shift in focus from general market media to targeted content crafted explicitly for minority audiences is long overdue. Earlier in the year, during a talk about accessible storytelling, Google CMO Lorraine Twohill spoke about the need for greater diversity across the content pipeline, both in front of and behind the camera. Addressing the audience at Cannes, she said, “Great advertising should include everyone, not just in the work, but how and where it reaches people.” 

 

Calls for acknowledgment of the intersectionality of minority audiences is exactly what ALTERED.LA has been advocating for since launching in 2012. Founder and executive producer, Marcos Cline, decided to start a production company in order to demonstrate how multicultural talent understand the nuances of both markets. With offices in LA, Mexico City and Bogotá, ALTERED.LA’s bilingual, bicultural solution helps clients who are struggling to bring work to life in a way that feels authentic to both audiences. 

“We’re as American as apple pie and as Mexican as Tacos al Pastor, but we dream about making a pecan pie with a layer of flan on the bottom – can you imagine how good that would be?” says Marcos. Everyone on ALTERED.LA’s roster has worked in both markets and is able to hone in on their experiences in order to craft authentic, meaningful narratives that connect with multicultural audiences. “There’s a fine line between authenticity and pandering,” clarifies Marcos, “It’s not uncommon for us to be the only Latinos in a room full of people creating campaigns inclusive of that demographic – that’s where we shine.” 

Personifying ALTERED.LA’s unique offering is the Argentinian American director Patrick Sherman. Having grown up in Latin America, Patrick can speak the literal and metaphorical language of the diverse Hispanic culture, while also recognising the nuances of an ever-evolving American culture. 

Coming up in the industry during a time when the consideration of minority audiences was an afterthought, Patrick is every bit as passionate about Latino representation as Marcos. “Back then, it felt like the agencies, usually the general market ones that were tasked with including Spanish spots, were just translating the English work and releasing it with their General Market spots. This was on a good day,” he reveals. “The creatives didn’t seem that invested in the Hispanic work. Sometimes they would be happy with a voice-over version with no dialogue. In fact, sometimes they would choose directors that didn’t even speak Spanish.”

ALTERED.LA has been pushing the envelope for Latino audiences and is pleased with the progress. “To give you an idea about how much the industry has evolved, I recently did a campaign that had different Latino countries and accents represented in all three spots. Rather than going for a ‘neutral’ accent, there were Cubans, Argentines and Mexican characters in the spots,” says Patrick. 

Eager to be at the forefront of this continued change, ALTERED.LA produced two pioneering bilingual brand campaigns in 2022, both shot by Patrick. The first, a PSA spot about energy saving for Flex Alerts, saw two separate casts deliver the script in their native English and Spanish. DDB San Francisco, the agency behind the Flex Alerts campaign, were determined to deliver the brand messaging to both audiences in a respectful and authentic way. “Connecting to any demographic is key when a brand is talking to an audience,” says Jo Cresswell, executive creative director at DDB San Francisco, “Viewers can see through an ad if it has just been dubbed in their language. Consciously or unconsciously, it sends a message that “your market isn’t as important to us.” Acknowledging and embracing differences across cultural groups makes people feel seen and heard – that is hugely important.”

Lifting the curtain on the creative process, Patrick recalls his experiences on set, directing the dual language spots. “We alternated between two pairs of actors and shot both languages together, as opposed to completing each language separately – this requires keeping track of a lot of moving parts!” he says. “Once you start doing alternate takes in two languages at the same time, things can get unwieldy quickly. Needless to say, having a grasp on the language and two cultures makes for a very efficient shoot.” 

Impressed with the final deliverables - a series of funny and thoughtful 15” and 30” second spots delivered by four talented English and Spanish actors - DDB San Francisco have been convinced of the benefits of ALTERED.LA’s bilingual production capabilities. “Not only did all campaign elements receive the same directorial care, guidance and input but the whole process was far more streamlined, as notes we had worked through in one language were easily communicated for the next,” says Jo. “Having those direct discussions between director and talent was invaluable, and having a director that understood the cultural differences between the two markets meant we had work that spoke authentically to both audiences, which was particularly important for the PSA style message we needed to communicate across the state. Never in my career have I wrapped a shoot early until this one!”

As the executive producer, Marcos was also thrilled with the outcome and Patrick’s ability to demonstrate the advantageous nature of ALTERED.LA’s bicultural and bilingual model. “When directing in Spanish, Patrick’s connection to the characters is personal in many ways, but that’s also true when directing in English,” says the founder proudly, “The speed at which he’s able to shift between languages makes for a faster paced environment meaning more gets done in a day in a way that is more authentic to our target demographic. This goes for our whole team: we bring on bilingual AD's, script supervisors, wardrobe stylists etc., to ensure a consistently efficient bicultural experience throughout the shoot.”

Another bilingual campaign that ALTERED.LA took on this year was for automotive retail brand, Advance Auto Parts. In celebration of their 90th anniversary, the brand decided to launch a bilingual campaign featuring Hispanic American spokes character Ed Vance. Handled by creative agency TMA, the brief explicitly outlined the objective of reaching the brand’s substantial Hispanic customer base. “Connecting with a Spanish-speaking audience was a key requirement of this project,” says Nick Cernoch, creative director at TMA, “We want the work to feel integrated so everything we make for all audiences feels authentic, as opposed to just a straight translation.” 

Together, TMA and ALTERED.LA achieved this objective by casting the same talented bilingual actor, John Roleimo, to perform in the role of Ed Vance for both the English and Spanish spot. “Finding the same actor for both is not as easy as it sounds. You need a unicorn,” says Patrick, “You need a guy that can be fluent in both languages, funny in both cultures and if that’s not hard enough, has to have the stamina to do twice the work of a normal actor in one day. This is why, 99.9% of the time we end up with different casts for each language.”

“The main guy speaks perfect English in one spot and then does it in perfect Spanish too. This use of the same talent speaks volumes to the understanding that it's about having an authentic representation in the market, and we want to bring this to the table,” adds Marcos.

Weighing in on the subject from an agency perspective, Nick explains, “From a production standpoint it is more efficient to use the same actor, but from a creative standpoint it also allows the character to feel more ‘real’ since so many modern Latinos do bounce back and forth between languages every day,” says Nick. “Working with a bilingual director like Patrick who can give notes in and understand the nuances of both languages is very beneficial. It allows for a much smoother process from casting to pre-pro and especially on set when we must move quickly to make our days.”

The success of the ‘Flex Alerts’ and ‘Ed Vance’ work indicates a clear path towards the continued evolution of bilingual, bicultural content for an acculturated American audience. Patrick, who has witnessed the evolution up-close over the years, is overjoyed with the evident change in approach from brands and agencies. “It was such a rewarding experience to work on the Flex Alert and Ed Vance projects. From the get-go, they both stressed the importance of presenting the campaigns in a culturally relevant and honest way, and this applied to both cultures because often there was overlap between them,” he says. “Agencies are finally listening and Latino audiences really appreciate it because it makes them feel relevant as who they are today and also proud of their heritage.”