Some interesting movie ticket trivia I learned from Jim Estrada of Austin, Texas, today with regard to the Academy Awards, the movie industry, Mexican-Americans (Latinos) and etc.  I thought it was worth quoting him in light of the Oscars.

HOW SOON THEY FORGET: Oversights and ethnically-biased quips continue to plague the Academy Awards and the movie industry it honors. A months-long investigation by The Los Angeles Times resulted in a February 25, 2012, editorial about the membership of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) that revealed the organization—like much of the media and entertainment industries—is mainly non-Hispanic white (NHW) and male. The Times found of the Academy’s 5,112 members, the voting members were almost 94 percent (4,805) NHW and 77 percent (3,936) male. According to AMPAS, that of the 178 people accepted for membership in 2011, 30 percent (53) were women and 10 percent (18) were non-white.

Why is this relevant? In 2010, Nielsen reported that 43 million Latinos bought 351 million movie tickets — an increase from the 37 million that bought 300 million tickets in 2009, making them a critical share of the movie-going audience in the U.S. The movie industry continues to develop more marketing initiatives and ways to make their films more attractive to U.S. Latinos, but fails to understand the need for more inclusion and respect within their own industry’s ranks for a growing number of future customers.

How soon will we forget?

I always look forward to the funny Superbowl commercials every year because well … they’re funny.

It looks like the baby boom generation lives on with regard to the Viva Young Taco Bell commercial, and in my view, every older man and woman should live their lives to the fullest and loosen up a bit.

The hilarious parts (not limited to) included:

1.  The old man lifting his shirt and pressing his nipple against the window.

2.  The scene at the tattoo shop.

3.  The folks breaking out from the retirement home.

4.  The song “We Are Young” being sung in Spanish to the Taco Bell commercial.

Ah, yes …. whoever is responsible for putting this commercial together is a marketing genius capturing the attention of the fastest growing demographic in America — the Mexican-Americans (taking place in the great southwest).  We’ll be spending more money there at Taco Bell because we enjoy companies that incorporate Spanglish in their marketing. By the way… whatever happened to that  “Yo Quiero Taco Bell” dog?  We miss him.

In case you missed it — here is the extremely funny commercial.

This one quote struck a chord with me since most Mexican-Americans know we are indigenous to this land. Very cool…and I thoroughly enjoyed the speech.  More to come on his immigration speech.

“Unless you were one of the first Americans, a Native American, you came from someplace else.” – President Obama