Media Moves

Covering Latinos in the Media Industry

Is WOAI’s lame news promo trying to reach Latino viewers?

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Who was the bird brain who produced this news promo at WOAI in San Antonio? And how could anchor Elsa Ramon play along?

I usually don’t inject opinions on this site, but this is so unbelievably stupid, I just couldn’t help it.

When journalist Laura Martínez wrote about it on her blog and led me to the video, I couldn’t believe it.

Someone at San Antonio NBC affiliate WOAI, channel 4, evidently thought dressing up its anchors and having them do a little role-playing with exaggerated moves, pretending to be characters of a telenovela would be a cool promo to attract more Latino audiences to their 6:30 pm newscast. Or, is it possible that they thought it would attract other viewers by making fun of TV programs many Latinos like to watch?

Either way, it’s a lose-lose proposition.

What’s even worse, anchor Elsa Ramon went along with the gag.

Take a look and please share what you think!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. I thought it was cute. Don’t be so sensitive. That probably ranks in the bottom 200 of objectionable things done by local news operations in S.A. over the last year. No? Si.

  3. Speaking of credibility, do you even watch WOAI? Elsa anchors every night at 6:30 pm. BTW, the promo you skewered here got overwhelmingly positive response on the station’s Facebook page…from all types of viewers. Some called it the best spot they saw during the Super Bowl. Lighten up.

  4. I’m afraid that the “news” is no longer the news.

    What we see is a watered down version.

    If the station wants to attract more Hispanic viewers, it needs to cover stories of importance to the Latino community. Then, once they’ve done that, promote it.

    Whether cutesy or not, it does not promote that their newscasts address the needs of the viewers that they are trying to reach.

  5. With all due respect, I think it wasn’t bad at all, I mean come on, we’ve seen worst interpretation of Latinos on Family Guy and MADTV combined and yet they’re not offensive enough, and I’m a proud Latino who loves family guy and I even laugh at some of our own everyday little dramas, the station is just trying to get away from the usual “In your face” promos with cool gfx and music, WTVJ NBC 6 here in Miami in fact had a guy who seemed like he was promoting a music video premier during Super Bowl which wasn’t cool enough, so lighten up a little and take a deep breath and don’t let it get to you! Tequila shots on ME!

  7. The problem is not the promo — amazing work by the way — the problem resides with our sensibilities, specially coming from you.

    With all due respect, we come here to read your reports, not your opinions, so you should focus more on the information we expect from this blog … example: yesterday, February 24th, Raymond Mesa, KWHY’s Lead Anchor and News Director, was fired for no valid reason … I came to your website to find the inside information that you provide and I found none … those are big news from the number one Hispanic market in the U.S. and you were MIA.

    I’m not going to loose my time debating your assumptions (something a serious journalist shouldn’t do), because your sensitivity doesn’t fit the bill: when you’re able to wear our brown skin, live in our neighborhoods, ride on our buses and speak only español, then we’ll talk about sensitivities … which is one of many reasons we don’t bond as a strong group — try first to understand the idiosyncrasy of us, Hispanics, and then, I’ll bet you’ll think twice before representing “our voice.”

    As for the promo, that’s what it is: a PRO-MO … you know, is that thing that channels use to promote their shows, which bring more viewers, which generate ratings, which dictate the cost of the commercial spots, which pay for Elsa Ramon’s paycheck, who took the chance, for 30 seconds, to think outside the box … you should try it from time to time … you might get more hits on your blog and get more money from your AdChoices.