cowboys
Bengals claim QB Krenzel
... with the team before suffering a season-ending high ankle sprain during a loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving. ...
Cowboys Weblog: News Editorials :: Parcells Guys Editorial Coach Parcells??? Blueprint...
Parcells Guys Editorial Coach Parcells??? Blueprint Just About Complete In Dallas Bill Parcells came to the Dallas Cowboys to win football games. We all know this is his job as the football coach, but he has also changed the culture for this Cowboy franchise. He is putting together a team who can be proud of themselves no matter the score at the end of the game. There are no more radios blasting
Cowboys Weblog: News Editorials :: Parcells Guys Editorial Coach Parcells??? Blueprint...
Parcells Guys Editorial Coach Parcells??? Blueprint Just About Complete In Dallas Bill Parcells came to the Dallas Cowboys to win football games. We all know this is his job as the football coach, but he has also changed the culture for this Cowboy franchise. He is putting together a team who can be proud of themselves no matter the score at the end of the game. There are no more radios blasting
Cowboys Weblog: News Editorials :: Parcells Guys Editorial Coach Parcells??? Blueprint...
Parcells Guys Editorial Coach Parcells??? Blueprint Just About Complete In Dallas Bill Parcells came to the Dallas Cowboys to win football games. We all know this is his job as the football coach, but he has also changed the culture for this Cowboy franchise. He is putting together a team who can be proud of themselves no matter the score at the end of the game. There are no more radios blasting
New Approaches to Marketing to Hispanics
June 14, 2005
By Paul Epstein
(Special thanks to Tomas Custer for making me aware of this article)
Marketers who choose not to devote significant time and effort to the Hispanic population are missing out on a vital consumer segment that is growing faster than any other minority group in the United States. In fact, businesses should consider implementing new approaches and strategies to target Hispanics. Perhaps the most effective way to reach this evolving market is through the Internet.
Research conducted by Brand Strategy Journal shows that Hispanics are the largest minority group in America. By 2012, they will account for nearly one out of every five American residents if growth rates persist at their current pace.
Buying power among the Hispanic population in the US is also increasing at a rapid pace. Between 1996 and 2001, the median income of Hispanic households rose 20%, from $27,977 to $33,565, while the median for all US households increased just 6%, from $39,869 to $42,228. In this day and age, the Hispanic audience carries significant purchasing power and simply cannot be ignored in a company's marketing strategy.
As their household income increases, Hispanics are entering cyberspace more quickly than any other ethnic group in the US. Internet usage among them jumped 7.4% in 2004, after an 8% spurt in 2003, the market research firm eMarketer predicted. It also projected that 13.3 million Hispanics were surfing the Net by the end of 2004, up from 12.4 million in 2003 and 8.7 million in 2000. Though they are still likely to be less wealthy than the average, evidence suggests that more education among second and further generations is starting to ameliorate economic conditions.
Marketers must also be aware of the typical Hispanic-American Internet user: 28 years old, slightly more likely to be male, and unmarried, according to a study conducted by the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies. Approximately half of all Hispanic-American Internet users a
re Spanish-language dominant; that is, at home they speak Spanish more than English.
This same study reveals that Hispanics spend almost five hours per week online, and for 71% of them the primary usage is from a computer at home. In addition to their time on the Net, typical Hispanic Internet users are watching 18 hours of television per week (approximately 50% of it in Spanish) and listening to 15 hours of radio (also half of it in Spanish).
More than three-quarters of respondents are using the Internet for email, 60% to get news, 54% to listen to music and 43% to chat. According to the 2002 Nielsen Media Research study, Univision.com was the top Spanish-language destination for US Hispanic users for the second year in a row. Rounding out the top five Spanish-language Web destinations for US Hispanic users were Yahoo En Espanol, Terra, Yupi and StarMedia. There is abundant evidence that Hispanics are a crucial part of the American customer base and that a significant amount of them are using the Internet. That said, marketers should use the aforementioned data to find out the most effective ways to get through to this demographic via the Internet.
Marketers must first realize that there are two groups of Hispanics in the US: native-born Hispanics who have lived exclusively in the US; and immigrants. These two groups are usually very different in their consumer behavior.
For example, those who speak English fluently tend to be familiar with mainstream American culture and have buying habits similar to non-Hispanics that have spent most of their lives in the US. Meanwhile, the immigrant population often has shopping habits that reflect its natural heritage. They are more likely to use Spanish-language media and would prefer to shop where employees speak Spanish. Marketers must be aware of which group of Hispanics they are trying to target--fluent English-speaking Hispanics or immigrants--and plan their marketing campaigns accordingly.
Second-generation Hispanic-Americans have b
een deeply affected by American culture and are very different in their consumer behavior from foreign-born Hispanics, who usually view themselves as completely Hispanic and have minimal contact with or interest in mainstream US culture. Second-generation Hispanic-Americans have become much more acculturated and want to replace, or have already replaced, their Hispanic identity with a mainstream American identity.
An article in Hispanic Business titled "A Melting Pot With Flavor" explains this phenomenon. Upon arriving in the US, foreign-born Hispanics are culturally isolated. However, their children and grandchildren become assimilated or acculturated. These days, the Hispanic market can be divided with foreign-born and third-generation Hispanics at the poles of the cultural spectrum, and much of the market moving between them.
According to the Pew Hispanic Center, which conducts ongoing research of Hispanic Americans, first- and second-generation Hispanic youths tend to thoroughly identify with and embrace their cultural heritage even as they begin blending into American society. But by the third generation, Hispanic youths identify more with American culture and values. (This is a concern to many Latinos and Hispanic organizations, which fear that Hispanic youths are becoming disconnected from their ethnicity and not taking leadership roles in the Hispanic community.)
Some US companies are already catering to the Hispanic immigrant population, and it is paying off. H&R Block, in its first major Hispanic project, installed 4,100 bilingual tax preparers in 2002 and aired amusing Spanish-language commercials. This initiative helped Hispanic traffic grow by double digits. Lincoln Mercury featured actress Salma Hayek in its first Spanish-language ad campaign with a celebrity. The National Football League is rushing to promote itself to Hispanics, a group that has traditionally preferred soccer and baseball, by having its Web site (NFL.com) available in Spanish and by featuring pr
eseason games such as the 2001 American Bowl preseason match between the Dallas cowboys and Oakland Raiders at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City.
It is estimated that the worldwide online Spanish-speaking population is 50 million. By not making its Web site available in Spanish, a firm may be missing 20% of all Internet users. Now that the Internet is reaching relatively un-acculturated Hispanics who are frustrated by the lack of Spanish-language content on the Web, it is important for marketers to construct Spanish-language Web sites. A Terra Lycos study showed that in 2002 Hispanics spent 55% of their online time connected to Spanish language sites, compared with only 39% in 2001.
One of the most common mistakes that advertising executives make when marketing to Hispanics is assuming that the Hispanic population in the US is homogeneous. Most US Hispanics are Mexican, but some are from other Central and South American or Caribbean nations such as Cuba and the Dominican Republic, or from Puerto Rico.
According to a report conducted by the US Census Bureau, there were 37.4 million Hispanics living in the United States in 2002--about 67% Mexican, 14.3% Central and South American, 8.6% Puerto Rican and 6.5% from elsewhere.
Most Hispanics prefer to identify themselves by their country of origin rather than referring to themselves as "Latino" or "Hispanic." Although Hispanics in the US consider themselves to be a part of a common ethnic group, most have a stronger identification with their country of origin, and these different identifications should be considered when planning any marketing strategy.
Marketers, however, must also be aware of Hispanics' general preferences and habits. For example, they are group oriented. They take pleasure in group outings such as soccer games, street fairs and festivals. Companies must not rely solely on the Internet or television to reach the Hispanic consumer. Outdoor ads with simple messages generate the biggest reach and frequ
ency numbers at low cost.
Hispanics are also extremely family-oriented, so any marketing strategies with family values themes have strong appeal to them. Hispanics can be characterized by strong and close bonds that often extend outside the nuclear family to include grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and other, non-family members.
For example, when Honda targets Hispanic consumers in advertisements for its Accord, it usually pitches the sedan version instead of the sportier coupe. Honda does this because its market research finds strong family orientation among Latinos. When Ford advertises its Ford Focus to Hispanics, it emphasizes the small car's attributes as a family vehicle. But the carmaker pitches it to other groups as a fun-to-drive vehicle for the young.
Hispanic families are very likely to be three-generational, with grandparents an integral part of the unit. Casting a Hispanic family in advertisements, complete with grandparents in the home, might be a wise marketing strategy for firms hoping to expand their marketing messages to Latinos.
Humor and laughter are also great ways to connect with the Hispanic consumer. Hispanics will often playfully tease a person about his/her physical attributes. This is considered playful teasing, which is endearing, not demeaning. Marketers should be aware of this and other cultural preferences when using humor in their advertising campaigns.
Hispanic Internet users are too large a consumer segment to ignore. Those that figure out a way to reach this group will reap the benefits.
Source: MarketingProfs.com
Dallas Cowboys (Old and New) Will Join Dorados This Weekend (OurSports Central)
HIDALGO, TX: June 13, 2005 The Rio Grande Valley Dorados of arenafootball2 will welcome some special guests at Chase Field inside the Dodge Arena Saturday night during their contest with the Central Valley Coyotes, as former Dallas Cowboys George Teague, Solomon Page and current Cowboy strong safety Keith Davis will make a promotional appearance made possible by the Pena Eye Institute.
Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader
Includes: Dress
Because these amused me:
You refer to the Dallas Cowboys as "God's favorite football team"...
DISGUSTING, ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING!!!!
I mean, it's like a huge Japanese businessman buying the Dallas Cowboys, it shouldn't be done!! ! Why?!?...
Wallet with the logo of your favorite team
They have wallets with many other team logos, from the Boston Red Sox, to the Buffalo Bills, to the Altanta Braves, to the Dallas Cowboys, to the New England Patriots....
MOVIE MARATHON MONDAY: A TALE OF THREE 'L'S
So, as I mentioned yesterday, I hadn't done a day of movies in a while. I guess since I only got to three (some of you are saying "only?" I'm sure) as opposed to a true marathon of at least four or five, it's not really a full day, but I must admit ? I'm out of practice, and I didn't plan as meticulously as I usually do. Additionally, my formula for accurately calculating the end times of a film at the AMC 25 (i.e., add 10 minutes to the run time) seems to have been altered. Now you need to add a good 15-20 minutes if you want to come even close to accuracy. I guess I hadn't really been paying attention that even more commercials and trailers had been added. The end result was, after getting to two, I missed my desired third, and it was two long for me to wait around there for something else, so I left and (shudder!) paid a second admission somewhere else.
Oh, what did I see? In honor of Monday, I decided to only see movies with titles beginning with the letter "L." Why? Lunes, Lundi and Lunedi ? that's "Monday" in Spanish, French and Italian. Duh! Actually, that's a big lie. I just happened to see three movies starting with L. But wouldn't that be cool to actually formulate a personal program that way? No. You're right. Moving on.
I started with Layer Cake. I already mentioned in my previous post the important Bond-related lessons I learned courtesy of Matthew Vaughn's drug gangster film, but I wanted to actually talk a bit more about the movie itself, as well as mention the other two features I sat through, Lords of Dogtown and The Longest Yard. Suffice it to say,
Layer Cake was by far the highlight.
Layer Cake
The "layer cake" is how Michael Gambon's character Eddie Temple describes the drug-based criminal organization hierarchy in which Daniel Craig's character finds himself. Craig plays a drug dealer with a very strong work ethic. He's not the supplier nor is he actually the guy selling on the street. He's the middleman, and he knows his place. He knows how to run his business, make his money, keep his employees and bosses happy, and never get in trouble.
Or so he thinks. Since this is a movie, his plans for early retirement obviously are going to go awry through no fault of his own, and what Vaughn and screenwriter J.J. Connolly (who adapted his own novel) give us is a taught crime thriller in the newish British noir tradition of Croupier and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (the latter of which Vaughn produced). The story features more twists and turns than one could actually count without taking copious notes, and in a way, that's both its greatest strength and weakness.
The film is exciting, the surprises surprising, but at a certain point, when one tries to outwit the audience that many times, there are really only a couple possible directions in
which to head, and instead of leaving the theater saying, "What a great twist," an audience member ? say, this one for example ? might think he saw it coming. This doesn't really take away from the enjoyment of Layer Cake, however, which simply put is a lot of fun without being too much of any one thing. Stylistically, Vaughn's film looks a lot like Guy Ritchie's work in Lock, Stock. But Vaughn may be even more disciplined. His camera moves all over the place, edits are quick as expected these days thanks to the MTV influence, and scenes literally flow from one to another without any noticeable cut. Music is utilized well, and the visual elements of the film provide the tone for the entire picture rather than the other way around. But what Vaughn does well is know how to take a step back. (A lesson that Michael Bay.) When a scene needs time to play out, it gets it. When the camera shouldn't move, it doesn't. When you don't need to see something yet, you don't.
The film is obviously not perfect. As I mentioned, it suffers from predictability simply due to its attempt to outsmart the audience. There are also plot elements that may have been more defined in the novel (or not; I haven't read it) that seem like loose ends floating in the wind here. None are all that important, but they still contribute to my saying, "Uhm, what about ??" at the end.
Still, Vaughn deserves major kudos for creating an incredibly entertaining picture without letting his cinematic style get in the way. He benefits from a brilliant cast including Gambon, the great Colm Meaney, and most importantly, the brilliant Daniel Craig. Craig plays a character relatively unique among crime dramas: he's very intelligent, but he's not a total smart-ass, and he
doesn't think he's invincible. In fact, as bright as Craig's character is, he knows he's in trouble, and he's not sure how to get out if it. To make matters worse (or better, in story-terms), he keeps making mistakes. Things don't always go right, and when he fucks-up, it's his fault, not that of some Deus ex Machina unlucky situation. Craig pulls off all the important subtleties and nuances of this role perfectly, without ever being too hyper or mellow. Like all good films that even attempt to utilize a noir label, Craig's character deals in shades of grey ? he tries not to deal in extremes, and he's a good guy who maybe does some bad things, but we're definitely still going to root for him.
Lords of Dogtown
Maybe Catherine Hardwicke, the director of Lords of Dogtown -- the fictionalized film inspired by the great skating documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys -- should spend some time learning from Vaughn because someone needs to teach her how to direct. I know lots of people went crazy over her debut Thirteen a couple years ago, but people: it really wasn't that good. It had a terrible script that happened to somewhat frankly deal with "shocking" issues involving sex and drug use by 13-year-old girls. It also featured a pretty mature performance by Emile Hirsch, John Robinson, Victor Rasuk and Michael Angarano. I couldn't help but laugh every time Heath Ledger appeared on screen because of his channeling of Val Kilmer. It was almost as if Ledger created his role of the surf-shop owner, and the skaters' mentor, Skip by taking bits of Kilmer's performances in The Doors, Wonderland and The Salton Sea and just smushing them all together with the help of a weird pair of fake teeth and an accent the sounds like Burgess Meredith's Penguin as a SoCal surf dude. (Props also to Rebecca De Mornay who deserves credit just for allowing herself to look like hell!) I do have to agree with Karen Cinecultist in her plea to Hardwicke to s
top inflicting the non-talent that is Nikki Reed on the world> Maybe she feels obligated since Reed was the one who "wrote" the screenplay for Thirteen. She wasn't very good in that film either.
If you haven't seen the documentary by original Z-Boy (and Lords of Dogtown screenwriter) Stacy Peralta, you'll probably enjoy this film more. If you have, you've already seen most of the story, told better and in more amazing fashion since you expect cool shots of the kids skating in a fictional movie that allows multiple takes and set-ups much more than you would from archival photographs and footage (basically home movies) that are in the original doc. If, like me, you saw the doc first, Lords of Dogtown remains interesting for about 45 minutes, and then you might just find yourself waiting for the damn thing to end.
This film had been in development for a while with a few different people scheduled to direct. One was David Fincher, who stayed on as a producer. What a different, and probably more interesting, movie this: visually she's got that bleached Southern California look down, but this could have been a fascinating story for Fincher to tell, unlike anything we've seen from him before. Ah, what might have been.
The Longest Yard
I saw the original version of The Longest Yard years ago, and I don't remember it much. But as is the case with most movies I see, I tend
to remember my feelings and impressions of a film more than details of the film itself, and I'm perfectly secure in saying that Robert Aldrich's 1974 movie could wipe the field with Peter Segal's modern adaptation. This isn't particularly surprising as Aldrich was a talented director who was responsible for films like What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and The Dirty Dozen while Segal has more in common with Hardwicke, i.e., being a crappy director. Segal is the man responsible for a slew of crappy comedies, including Adam Sandler's last two debacles, the amazingly dull Anger Management and the equally tedious 50 First Dates. (Yes, I know people love Tommy Boy, but it's really a piece of crap. Anything good and funny about that film is solely because of the late Chris Farley's manic comedic skills.)
I don't mean to be too harsh. This new The Longest Yard isn't horrible. It has some entertaining and funny moments, and the basic story of a former football player having to lead a football team of inmates against the semi-pro prison guads still works, the spin placed on this version by Segal and screenwriter Sheldon Turner turn everything to shit. The majority of the jokes hit with a resounding thud louder than any of the sound effects placed on the tackles during the film's football game. They're not imagin
ative or surprising, and therefore, simply not funny. (Oh look, they switched the guys steroids with estrogen and now the rest of the movie he'll be all emotional, and cry, and act like a stereotypical woman. Sure as hell didn't see that coming.)
Segal has no concept of pacing or story development, and the editing in this film is downright annoying, especially during the football sequences. As is required during any comedy film involving sports these days, random real sportswriters and ESPN's Chris Berman show up for cameos to react to the game, because in this version ESPN2 decides to broadcast. As usual, the banter provided these poor non-actors is horrible, and all of us would have been better off had it all landed on the cutting room floor.
What's wasted are some decent performances from all involved, including Sandler and Burt Reynolds, who played Sandler's role in the original but here becomes "Coach" Nate Scarborough, who doesn't really do much coaching until the very end. Nelly isn't bad either as a barefooted running back phenom, and even former Dallas Cowboy Michael Irvin holds his own. Poor Chris Rock has most of the bad one-liners (but also some of the good ones) so he suffers the most.
A remake of The Longest Yard wasn't the worst idea. The original film isn't such a hallowed masterpiece that the story shouldn't be touched, and it could have been interesting to use a story such as this to show a bit of how the times ? both in professional sports and prison culture ? are different in 2005 from 30 years ago. But that's too high an ideal for Segal and Sandler. They just want to make people laugh, which is OK too, but in order to do so, you've got to make something funny, and The Longest Yard isn't.
PDNEWSWIRE (Photo District News)
North Texas-based photographer Walter Smith has won a $275,000 settlement with the Dallas Cowboys after the team used one of Smith's pictures on T-shirts and other merchandise without his permission.
Cowboy Spirit
Tonight's news had an item that shows just how big a man Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is. Back in 2000, when the Cowboys were struggling, San Francisco wide receiver Terrell Owens sprinted to the midfield star after a touchdown,...
Elway, Ditka mind own business (Rocky Mountain News.com)
John Elway played in five Super Bowls with the Denver Broncos and is the winningest starting quarterback in NFL history. Mike Ditka won one Super Bowl as a Dallas Cowboys tight end and a second as coach of the Chicago Bears.
Even with Bledsoe, Cowboys have QB battle _ for No. 2 (KXAN 36 Austin)
IRVING, Texas There is still a quarterback competition for the Dallas Cowboys, even if Drew Bledsoe is assured to be a starter. Coach Bill Parcells wants to make... |
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