Aflac launches TV commercial for Hispanics

Aflac today unveiled its eighth new television commercial of 2009, titled “Soccer.” This commercial showcases the Aflac Duck as the web-footed star of the team, who helps provide a solid defense against unexpected medical bills. “Soccer” will debut on August 24, running nationally on CBS, ABC, FOX, NBC, CNN, CNBC, Discover Channel, USA, Headline News and the History Channel.

“Soccer” presents two mothers, one of whom is using crutches, chatting about insurance while watching their kids play soccer. Soaring acrobatically in and out of frame, the Aflac Duck protects the mothers from harm while letting them know that it is Aflac that pays cash when someone is sick or hurt.

After bending one like Beckham to score a gravity-defying goal, the Aflac Duck celebrates with a victory dance while singing “Aflac, Aflac, Aflaaaac,” much to the surprise of one familiar fan.

“Aflac protects families during uncertain times and ‘Soccer’ drives that point home in a way that will resonate with consumers,” Jeff Charney, Aflac senior vice president and chief marketing officer (CMO) said. “We combined the classic family activity — the Saturday morning soccer game — with the Aflac Duck’s unmatched brand of humor, to effectively remind people that Aflac has you under our wing.”

This is the 46th commercial starring the Aflac Duck and marks the first time Aflac has introduced eight television ads in a single year. The corporate spokesduck is a well-known fundraiser for pediatric cancer-related causes and was named to the Advertising Walk of Fame in 2004. On January 1, 2010, the Aflac Duck will mark its 10th birthday as the company celebrates its 55th year serving American consumers.

Source: Aflac

Hispanic women and Sports - Soccer or football

But hidden underneath all that girly-ness, her favorite sport — soccer — often leaves her body black and blue with bruises.

She would get so lost in playing the game she loves during her spring season at East High School in Kansas City that sometimes she had no idea how she got so beat up.

Soccer is Rosa’s passion. Or futbol, as it is called in the Mendez living room. In her home, as is the case in many traditional Latino families, futbol isn’t a sport played by girls named after delicate flowers.

“It was my idea to go play,” Rosa says, “but (my parents) would say, ‘Stay here with the kids.’ Because girls shouldn’t be playing aggressive things.”

Rosa is the daughter of a Mexican father who works 12 hours a day and a Nicaraguan mother who works on an assembly line packing boxes with bottles of salad dressing and seasoning salt. She recently completed her junior season — her first high school soccer season — as a goalkeeper for the East Bears varsity team. Largely made up of Latinas (girls of Latin-American or Spanish-speaking descent), East’s roster is similar to those at several other inner-city schools, including Renaissance Academy, Alta Vista Charter High School, Northeast and Harmon, a Kansas City, Kan., high school with a Latino student population of 54 percent.

These are daughters of northern Mexican immigrants, the first or second generation that has come here to build new lives. But while adapting to old-age American traditions, like playing for the home team, these teenage girls sometimes struggle to navigate between their own desire to compete and their family’s cultural customs.

“In the Hispanic community, girls are more likely to do something that we call ‘girly’ or art stuff,” says Antonia Saenz, whose daughter Vanessa played soccer for the Alta Vista Lady Aztecs. “Sports are mostly seen for guys. It’s aggressive. Girls are not looked upon to be strong physically. They’re actually not encouraged to.”

This isn’t simply machismo. Many community leaders suggest there are practical reasons why Latina girls are expected to stay home. Their parents may often work long hours for little pay and live in some of the poorest communities in the city. When a daughter becomes old enough, she is asked to help with the younger siblings in the house or take on a part-time job. So who really has time to play soccer when the family needs the help?

“A couple of girls miss practices because they need to baby-sit,” East co-head coach Mike Somodi says. “It’s unbelievable the things that have priorities. It’s hard to get them in the mode of thinking that (soccer) is important. They want to play…but a lot of them work.”

•••

Rosa gets more than her name from her mother. Her flowing brown hair and a smile that radiates her otherwise sad eyes, she believes, she gets from her mother as well.

“We really get along,” Rosa says. “She knows everything about me.”

But Mrs. Mendez doesn’t always understand this daughter of hers.

She’s perplexed about why Rosa is so faithful to soccer practice and to a team that didn’t win many games. She wonders why Rosa can’t stay home with her three younger siblings.

Hispanic women and Sports - Soccer or football

Instead of coming home after school this spring, Rosa spent five days out of the week with her East Bears. At practice, Rosa would split time barking commands and encouragements, then sacrificing her thin, 5-foot-6 1/2 -inch frame in front of a net while teammates practiced shots.

Midway through the spring season, the Bears’ starting goalkeeper — Zenadia Mendez, Rosa’s older sister — quit the team. East tried to fill the position with another player, and then Rosa got her opportunity during one game when the Bears fell behind 7-0.

“That was my first time ever, and that’s how we finished, trailing 7-0. I didn’t let anything by,” Rosa says proudly. “Nobody wanted to be goalie, so I didn’t want to pressure them to be in it. But then I got to liking it . . . I felt like I was making a difference.”

Yes, Rosa’s a tough one — and everyone on that soccer field knows it.

“During a tournament at Camdenton, she took three shots to her face,” Somodi says. “Knocked her down, but she got back up.”

Mama Mendez doesn’t exactly like her daughter getting slugged in the chops, especially in a losing effort. East lost that tournament game 2-1, by the way.

As she sits in her living room, Rosa’s mother expresses her opinions about her daughter in clear but unconfident English. “I think,” Mendez says slowly, then turns to Rosa for help in finding the right phrase. Rosa listens to her mother, who never sugarcoats her words, and interprets: “I give a lot, but I receive less.”

Rosa’s mother continues, and she needs no help to say…

“She tries very hard, she asks for shoes, she asks for permission to go to practice,” Rosa’s mother says. “And all she gets is bruises. She gets hurt sometimes. She gets frustrated. I’ve been to a couple of games and she lost, so I said, ‘It’s not worth it.’ You get hurt and you lose. Her dad, he feels the same way. But she says: ‘I like it.’ ”

•••

Rosa loves soccer because the game is her escape.

She loves her No. 4 jersey, washing it after every game and delicately hang-drying it for fear that the machine won’t get the wrinkles out just right. She loves being around her teammates, in the back of the bus, cracking jokes on the way to a game. She’d do anything for those girls and one day hopes to get matching soccer tattoos with teammate Brandi Roos.

She caught the soccer passion at a young age. When she wasn’t watching Mexican League games on the living room television, she was tagging along to Sheffield Park to watch her father, Arturo, play goalie on a team made up of friends and family. She remembers watching her father and thinking: I want to play, too.

Now that she’s playing again for the first time in three years, Rosa can’t decide whether it’s the game she loves so much or just the freedom it gives her.

She used to play all the time, in the streets and for a James Elementary school team.

“When in elementary school,” Rosa’s mother says, “she wanted to play and I let her play. I did.”

But as Rosa got older, she took on more responsibilities at home. It is this very role — burgeoning homemaker — that community member Raquel Daldalian has found common among young Latinas. Daldalian points out that not all Latino families can be lumped together, but in her talks with a group of Hispanic girls from Northeast High School, their stories are all too common.

“Generally, the girls in a Latino family are expected to know how to cook and clean; that’s their main objectives,” says Daldalian, a Project Safe Prevention specialist at the Rose Brooks Center. “They are told if they don’t do these things, they won’t find a man. They’re not expected to go to school, and sports are at the bottom of the barrel.”

In Nicaragua, Mendez did not play organized sports, but she enjoyed active days as a little girl. Mendez grew up playing made-up games around her neighborhood that constituted a lot of running and chasing. She smiles when recalling those days, when she was just a girl and the focus of her life was games the neighborhood kids would dream up.

But when her mother moved the family to America, Mendez had to put away her childhood.

Rosa will be 17 soon and, like most typical teenage girls, she cherishes her cell phone and boyfriend. At 17, her mother was working eight-hour days packing tomatoes in Kansas City, Kan.

These days, Rosa is looking forward to her senior year. But at that same age, Rosa’s mother already was a high school dropout. There was no escape with soccer, as there is now for her daughter.

“It wasn’t a sacrifice,” Rosa’s mother says of her five-day-a-week work schedule. “I just had to help my mom.”

She met Arturo Mendez in 1989, and the couple married six months later. They’re raising their six children in the same three-bedroom house on Wheeling Avenue that they’ve lived in since starting a family. Both Mom and Dad want to see their children leave this place and surpass them.

Mrs. Mendez has a simple goal for Rosa — stay in school.

“My husband and I never got to finish school,” Mendez says. “We know how hard it is. …Our jobs depend on how strong we are. Not how smart we are.”

Although Mendez wants the best for her daughter, she is hesitant to follow Rosa’s passion for soccer.

“Sometimes,” Mendez sighs. “I don’t understand.

“If she likes playing soccer and (can) handle school and sports, it’s all right. (But) in my country, I’ve never seen girls in sports. To be honest, I’ve never seen girls with a medal.”

•••

The lack of importance associated with organized sports is evident in the Latinas who do play. Their families often cannot afford to send their children to youth leagues that would develop their skills. As a result, varsity soccer at schools like East and Alta Vista can be a rough sketch of what the game is actually supposed to look like.

Alta Vista coach Greg Brenner, a Mexican American, took over the varsity squad this spring and inherited 17 Latinas. Many of them did not know how to properly kick a soccer ball.

“I saw them play, and they looked like they were playing in slow motion,” Brenner says. “I kind of expected that, ‘Hey, you’re Hispanic. Aren’t you born with a soccer ball attached to you?’ But I worked with a boys team and saw the same thing. Socioeconomics come in … they don’t have time or money to play soccer.”

The reality for Rosa Mendez is that she has better things to be doing right now. She could use the money from her part-time job at Wendy’s to offset some of the expenses of her upcoming senior year. And on her off days, she could find herself watching her three younger siblings run around the house during summer vacation. But she wants to keep playing soccer.

She’s found a street team named Hidalgo and minds the net this summer. When Rosa recently asked her mother whether she could play, this time ¿Por que? (Why?) was not the response.

Her parents have come to understand why Rosa wants to play this game. Even as she struggles to explain the love herself.

“I’m not sure if it’s because of my dad or just the feeling of the game — when you make a goal or when you have the ball and you’re taking it up the field. I don’t know if it’s just being out or, ya know, it’s soccer,” Rosa says. “Everything about soccer. Working as a team. Even in goal, just slapping the ball…it’s probably the adrenaline. Everything.”

Source: Candace Buckner – The Kansas City Star

Mexican Soccer Legend Luis Roberto Alves ‘Zague’ joins Sprint at select games nationally

OVERLAND PARK, Kan., June 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Sprint (NYSE: S) — As an official sponsor of the popular 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup(TM) tournament, Sprint brings soccer fans closer to their favorite sport than ever before with exclusive mobile content, available only on the Sprint Now Network(TM). For the first time, fans can be a part of the action by experiencing full-length live streaming of the games directly on their Sprint TV-capable

Sprint Lets Soccer Fans Enjoy the Game Now

phones. Through their phones, subscribers will also have front row seats to follow CONCACAF Gold Cup(TM) from the opening game kickoff in Los Angeles to the finals in New York with real-time game updates about their teams playing in the tournament, related news and tournament statistics, among other fun features.

Additionally, Sprint has teamed up with one of the most popular Mexican soccer legends, Luis Roberto Alves ”Zague”, to provide a one-of-a-kind pre-game experience at select matches in some U.S. cities.

“Soccer is a way of life, not only for me but for all fans. It’s so exciting to see how Sprint has created the perfect synergy between sports and technology,” Zague said. “As a former soccer player, I am thankful to join a partnership where soccer fans are able to stay connected to the game by receiving up-to-the-minute information.”

At the games, fans can visit Sprint Mobile Experience to try firsthand how easy it is to enjoy real-time matches on the go on a wide range of Sprint phones.

Exclusive Sprint CONCACAF Gold Cup(TM) content

Developed in partnership with Univision Movil, only Sprint subscribers will have exclusive access to CONCACAF Gold Cup(TM) on their phones. Subscribers can visit sprint.com/copa on their mobile phones to enjoy:

– Live streaming of full-length games available for the first time ever on mobile devices

    -- Video highlights of goals, top plays and commentary! (1)
    -- Text alerts for results, game reminders and the latest team news
    -- Breaking news, photo galleries and TV schedules
    -- Ringers, screensavers and fight songs

“With the CONCACAF Gold Cup(TM), Sprint continues its commitment in solidifying partnerships that ignite our Hispanic subscribers’ passions, like soccer,” explained Kymber Umana, Hispanic marketing manager for Sprint. “Our ability to give our customers exclusive tournament content directly on their Sprint mobile phone is a sure bet that they will never miss a part of the CONCACAF Gold Cup(TM) action this summer.”

Finally, Sprint’s sponsorship includes a national television spot during Spanish-language soccer broadcasts, as well as multiple US Hispanic-targeted online creative banners on soccer and social networking sites and a website,www.sprint.com/copa. Sprint pays tribute to soccer fans with an exciting and humorous commercial titled, “‘Life or Futbol’, with Sprint you can have both,” that can be seen via a 30-second TV spot featuring the Sprint exclusive Samsung Instinct(R) s30(TM)(2). Existing customers will also receive informative newsletters and emails detailing exclusive content available on the most popular Sprint phones.

For more information about the CONCACAF Gold Cup(TM) tournament and to get a list of all the upcoming games, visit http://concacaf.com/competitions/goldcup/2009/history.aspx. Visit www.sprint.com/copa to learn about Sprint exclusive content available to subscribers.

Source: Sprint

NORTHBROOK, Ill., June 24 /PRNewswire/ – It’s Game Time…Allstate Insurance company, the nation’s largest publicly held personal lines insurer and exclusive auto, home and life insurance sponsor of the Mexican National Team, today launched this year’s sweepstakes, an exclusive promotion to celebrate the beauty of the game and its legions of fans.

Created to bring fans closer to a legend of “the beautiful game,” Allstate will reward one winner and a guest with an all-expenses-paid trip to Dallas, Texas on September 30 to watch a Tricolor game with one of the most exciting soccer players in history – former MNT captain Luis Roberto Alves, also known as “Zague.”

The sweepstakes is part of the activities surrounding Allstate’s third consecutive year as a sponsor of the Mexican National Team and is being announced as players prepare for the highly-anticipated June 24 exhibition match against Venezuela at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

“Allstate is a very proud sponsor of the Mexican National Team and we are excited to be able to offer this exclusive experience to two fans to be able to watch their team with one of its legends,” said Georgina Flores, senior marketing manager at Allstate.

Mexican soccer legend, former MNT player and ex-captain of the team, Luis Roberto Alves ”Zague,” has teamed up with Allstate over the past three years to add to the excitement and passion for the sport and to convey to fans that on and off-the field, protection is the right move. Sharing the team’s last game in the United States with him will be a once in a lifetime experience for a lucky winner and guest.

“This year has been full of excitement surrounding the performance and results for the qualifying games for both the Gold Cup and the World Cup. I’m thrilled to once again team up with my friends at Allstate, a company that’s always been committed to the Hispanic community,” commented ‘Zague’. “I look forward to joining the thousands of fans during the upcoming matches of the U.S. tour and I can’t wait to meet the winners of this year’s sweepstakes in Dallas.”

The promotion officially ‘kicks off’ on June 24, 2009, and is open until September 1, 2009. There are three ways for participants to enter and consumers can enter in English or Spanish:

• Enter online at www.proteccioneslajugada.com – the official Web site of Allstate’s MNT sponsorship
• Text “ZAGUE” to 49737 (standard rates apply)
• Visit the Allstate booth at Futbol Fiesta in Atlanta on June 24 and/or San Diego on June 28

There is one entry permitted per person. For rules and the official entry form, visit www.proteccioneslajugada.com

About Allstate

The Allstate Corporation (NYSE: ALL) is the nation’s largest publicly held personal lines insurer. Widely known through the “You’re In Good Hands With Allstate(R)” slogan, Allstate is reinventing protection and retirement to help individuals in approximately 17 million households protect what they have today and better prepare for tomorrow. Customers can access Allstate products and services such as auto insurance and homeowners insurance through approximately 14,700 exclusive Allstate agencies and financial representatives in the U.S. and Canada, or in select states at allstate.com and 1-800 Allstate(R). Encompass(R) and Deerbrook(R) Insurance brand property and casualty products are sold exclusively through independent agents. The Allstate Financial Group provides life insurance, supplemental accident and health insurance, annuity, banking and retirement products designed for individual, institutional and worksite customers that are distributed through Allstate agencies, independent agencies, financial institutions and broker-dealers. Customers can also access information about Allstate Financial Group products and services at myallstatefinancial.com.

Source: Allstate Insurance

NEW YORK, June 22 /PRNewswire/ — GolTV, the only live bilingual channel delivering 24/7 international soccer, which holds exclusive TV rights to Spain’s La Liga and ESPN have reached an agreement for Spanish and English-language multimedia rights to Spain’s La Liga in the U.S. through 2012. The two multimedia companies will now share coverage of one of the world’s most popular and most watched football leagues — Spain’s La Liga.

With this deal, GolTV and ESPN will give La Liga fans in the U.S. the ability to see an unprecedented number of games. Under the terms of the agreement, in addition to the 120 live games in English and Spanish that will be televised on GolTV, ESPN Deportes will provide exclusive Spanish-language coverage of more than 95 La Liga regular-season matches live. ESPN360.com – ESPN’s live sports broadband network – will stream at least 114 matches, including simulcast of all 95 ESPN Deportes matches live in English. ESPN2 will televise select matches and ESPN Mobile TV (on FLO TV and MobiTV) will also stream select games live to mobile devices. Additional coverage will include a highlights show on match days on ESPN Deportes, as well as re-air rights across ESPN Deportes and ESPN360.com.

ESPN Deportes and ESPN360.com will also have rights to Copa del Rey, Spain’s domestic cup tournament.

ESPNdeportes.com – the company’s Spanish-language Web site, and ESPNSoccernet – the leading soccer news and information site, will deliver complete coverage including highlights and news video, original reporting, columns, match previews, player profiles and real-time scores and data.

La Liga, the highest rated European soccer league on Spanish-language television in 2008 (based on Nielsen measurements) will debut on both networks in August 2009. Together the two multimedia companies will televise at least 234 regular season matches (120 on GolTV; 95 on ESPN Deportes; and 114 on ESPN360.com;). The networks will also televise the Copa del Rey. Together they will offer nearly 400 hours of La Liga programming.

La Liga’s 20 teams have made it the top UEFA competitions more than any other European league. Real Madrid and Barcelona are the club’s top two teams, winning 31 and 19 titles, respectively. Each week’s telecast on both networks are to be anchored by a news and information highlights show completely dedicated to covering all the news around La Liga.

“There is so much La Liga, and so much demand, we felt that for our fans and video distribution partners, the right answer was not to launch yet another exclusive channel, but to extend our programming rights across multiple networks – and there is no better partner for this endeavor than ESPN,” said Rodrigo Lombello, COO, GolTV. “No other European football league can match La Liga in attracting large audiences on Spanish-language television.”

“La Liga is arguably the most prestigious European soccer league in the world,” said Lino Garcia, general manager, ESPN Deportes. “We’re thrilled to work with GolTV to showcase La Liga on ESPN for the first time to soccer fans in the U.S. With the pending addition of Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka, the timing is great to include this great property to the ESPN Deportes line-up, as it is the most exciting soccer league in the world today.”

“La Liga features the biggest soccer stars in the world and its non-stop action is unmatched. These teams, including Real Madrid and Barcelona, deliver GolTV’s highest-rated games, and now by partnering with ESPN we will now serve all La Liga fans wherever they are, and on whatever channel they prefer to watch the game,” said Enzo Francescoli, founder and CEO of GolTV. “Because fans come first, we knew that making more of La Liga available across ESPN’s premiere multimedia platforms makes everyone a winner in this game. We couldn’t be more pleased to have this new relationship with ESPN.”

“At a time when Spanish teams are investing in the best soccer talent in the world, we are thrilled that through GolTV and ESPN La Liga will have the exposure and reach of such a large and significant audience,” said Roger Huguet CEO of Imagina US who represents La Liga’s broadcasting rights in the United States.

GolTV currently offers live and premiere coverage of the 2009 La Liga season, as well as the weekly program Ole! La Liga, which showcases top highlights from the Spanish league and airs on Mondays at 7:30 p.m. ET. For a complete programming schedule, please visit www.goltv.tv.

With this agreement, ESPN Deportes will now have a consistent block of live soccer on weekends – Mexican First Division, MLS, Dutch First Division and South American World Cup Qualifying. Each week ESPN Deportes will televise more than 16 hours of live soccer and 7 hours of news and information.

In the past year, ESPN360.com has delivered more than 800 live soccer matches online. La Liga joins a lineup of other top global soccer on ESPN360.com including World Cup events and qualifiers, Football League (UK), Carling Cup (UK), Italian Serie A, Portuguese Liga Sagres, MLS, US National team, Confederations Cup and more.

Source: ESPN Deportes

The Footballers’ Clubhaus presented by Volkswagen and MLS Hits the Road to Visit Over 46 Youth Soccer Tournaments

Soccer Mobile Marketing Campaign

HERNDON, Va., June 15 /PRNewswire/ — Volkswagen of America, the official automotive partner of Major League Soccer, today kicked off The Footballers’ Clubhaus presented by Volkswagen and MLS, a 19-city mobile marketing tour that will showcase Volkswagen’s product family at local youth soccer tournaments across the U.S. The Footballers’ Clubhaus presented by Volkswagen and MLS Mobile Tour, which will also feature a host of games and activities for the entire family, builds upon the company’s global commitment to the sport. The Footballers’ Clubhaus presented by Volkswagen and MLS hits the road today and will run through November when the brand joins the MLS Cup championship in Seattle.

“Globally, Volkswagen has been a long-time supporter of soccer. In the U.S. we’ve been increasing our commitment to the sport and are delighted to expand our presence at a grass-roots level throughout local communities,” said Tim Ellis, Vice President of Marketing for Volkswagen of America, Inc. “The youth soccer tour is testament to Volkswagen’s strategy of engaging families and multicultural audiences with our brand in a fun, authentic way.”

Volkswagen and Major League Soccer’s The Footballers’ Clubhaus presented by Volkswagen and MLS tour aims to reach families of the more than 3.2 million participants currently registered in youth soccer nationwide. As part of the tour, Volkswagen will take its fleet of cars on the road to approximately 46 youth soccer tournaments over 74 days that will include several fun-filled ride-and-drive opportunities for consumers. Thirteen of these markets are part of the largest Hispanic Soccer Tournament, titled Futbolito, a four-on-four traveling tournament for amateur players.

Volkswagen’s lineup of Routans, Jetta Sportwagens, Tiguans, Passat Wagons and CCs will prominently be showcased at the youth soccer events, with Volkswagen dealers on hand to answer questions and provide additional information on Volkswagen’s product family. As part of the events, families can participate in a host of fun and interactive activities including soccer-tennis, autograph sessions with MLS players and the chance to receive a $25gift card incentive for test driving a VW at their favorite local dealership. Kids will even enjoy a day of “Carefree Maintenance” where they can get their shoes and shoelaces repaired in between soccer matches, courtesy of Volkswagen.

Source: Volkswagen of America, Inc.