Lo que pasa aqui is not on TV

Timothy Pratt, Las Vegas Sun

Sunday, Nov. 25, 2007 | 1:50 a.m.

Que pasa here, stays here.

And you won't see it on Fox, CBS or ABC, either.

That's because R&R Partners, the company behind the now uberfamous slogan and ad campaign, came out with a version of both in Spanish, and the three TV networks said, no, gracias.

Not without subtitles in English, anyway. So R&R replied, gracias, but no.

The reaction to the "Lo que pasa aqui, se queda aqui" spot surprised R&R, uncovering what appears to be an English-only policy at most networks when it comes to advertising.

"It was completely news to us," said Rob Dondero, R&R executive vice president.

Julie Hoover, spokeswoman for ABC, said the network's standards and practices dictate that "any commercial that contains statements in a foreign language, we ask for subtitles."

The policy, she said, "is pretty old."

Fox and CBS representatives had no comment on the decision.

The policy drew criticism from observers of culture and language.

Gustavo Arellano, author of the nationally syndicated column "Ask a Mexican," said the move "shows how out of touch and, in a way, cowardly" the three networks are. Arellano's column and book of the same name deal with cultural stereotypes and controversies, many of which involve language.

Carlos Garcia of Garcia Research, a marketing research company, called the networks' decision a case of "bowing to the xenophobes."

"I think the networks are just responding to the one-fourth of the population that is freaking out about ... multiculturalism, Spanish and immigration," Garcia said.

The spot offered hinges on fewer than a dozen words, with a guy and his gal on the phone over a three-day period, each trying to get the other to hang up. Finally, when Friday night rolls around, he says, in Spanish, "I have to hang up," and she replies, "OK!" Then the camera widens its view and we see that she's in a room with two giggling girlfriends overlooking the Strip. The Spanish version of the slogan rolls across the screen.

Dondero said his firm showed the ad to focus groups with English-speakers and found that the message was clear.

"We realized how many people were seeing it that didn't understand what they were saying, but got it," he said.

The ad man thought his firm had "guts" to offer the spot to the English-language networks in the first place and thought it would "create buzz."

"So we sent it out ... only to find, 'We don't allow that,' " he said.

The firm was told the issue was one of "standards and practices," the part of networks that deals with the moral, ethical and legal implications of programming.

Garcia said he doubts that was the case.

"It's not like Spanish is obscene," he said. "That decision was made by the government affairs or community relations people ... to insulate them from criticism."

Dondero said the policy behind the decision seems outdated.

"I can't imagine that a policy probably designed years ago ... could ignore such a large population," he said. Surveys that Dondero considers imperfect show that 6 percent of Las Vegas' nearly 40 million annual visitors are Hispanic.

At the same time, he doesn't see the whole affair as a setback and noted that the ad is running in Mexico, on Spanish-language networks in the United States and on the cable stations A&E, Bravo, Fox Sports Net and Logo.

NBC also had no problem with the ad, but R&R isn't running it on that network for now.

He said the firm has a strong commitment to reach Hispanics and hopes his ads can "build a strong cultural attachment to Las Vegas."

The chico and chica spot, he said, "is just the beginning."

"We will be pushing into the general market media for a Hispanic voice."