December means the holiday season for many different cultures and religions in the US. During this time, the media is filled with advertisements that promote products through Christmas jingles and holiday specials. “Happy Holiday’s” has emerged as the phrase for advertisers to use, thought to be inoffensive and all inclusive. This makes sense-the last thing advertisers want to do is limit their customer base. As Michael Jordan famously put it when avoiding political siding, “Republicans buy shoes too!”
Still, even “Happy Holidays” appears unacceptable to some, Bill O’Reilly has made public that there is a “War on Christmas” and some Christian Groups agree. Then of course, there is the fact that for some religions and cultures, December is not the holiday season. CNN’s For Many, December’s a Dilema highlights a Baha’is family as their children worked on a school assignment that required the creation of a poster illustrating how their family celebrates the holidays. For Baha’is’s, gift giving and charity takes place during Ayyam-i-Ha in February. The children of the family worked together to create a poster that represented Ayyam-i-Ha, and found it to be well received by classmates.
Many families also take December to learn and celebrate cultures that are not their own. Some Sikh’s for example, buy Christmas trees, attend Christmas parties, and create family traditions involving Santa, elves, and gifts. Still these families do consider themselves Sikhs and not of the Christian faith.
In this way, December can be used not only as a time of one’s own traditional celebrations, but as a time to consider and learn about those of others. Advertisers of course, will consider every December how to best mention the holiday season to a multicultural America.
By: Jameson Strotman, Allied Media Corp
Jameson@allied-media.com
So it’s been about a month since I last posted anything. Time has been flying with creative production, constant meeting s, and a ton of presentations to give to the client. In fact, this week alone our creative director and I presented to the Census’ Joint Advertising Advisory Review Panel (JAARP) as well as the Department of Commerce and Congress.
As stated in my prior post, this is an extremely important step in the creative process. You see, JAARP is comprised of selected members of the Census’s Race and Ethnic Committee (REAC), which speaks for itself. The presentation to JAARP and gaining their approval is one of the final “hoops” that our creative teams have “jump” through to finalize the creative concepts and prep them for the media. As you can imagine, this is also the most important one for an ethnic agency.
When in the meeting, we presented our creative concepts to representatives of ethnic organizations. These individuals represent the interest of “their” ethnic groups and in turn, have very critical opinions on our representation on “their” ethnic groups. What makes this process a little bit easier is that we are part of “their” ethnic groups.
In some cases, these representatives are very aware of the creative process of marketing, though in most cases, we have to ask for their understanding and patience. When we show rough cuts for television, as well as placeholder tracks and images for the radio and print creative concepts, individuals have difficulty grasping the fact that things will change prior to the concepts reaching the media. This leads to many concerns about quality as well as cultural sensitivity. Concerns from these representatives are not taken lightly. These stakeholders have the ability to eliminate any creative concept they deem unfit, so we do whatever we can to make sure that all of our creative pleases these stakeholders while keeping the best interests for our audiences in mind.
A day after showing off our work to the client and their stakeholders, we made our way to the Chamber of Commerce where we gave the Secretary of Commerce a presentation on our work. This would be the final “loop” we would have to jump through for approval on the creative. As it happened, our stakeholders were pleased with our work, the Secretary gave us the “two thumbs up,” and we were give the go ahead to go public at the Capitol with our creative work the following day with our presentation the Congress. Now it’s time to finalize our work and prep them for media distribution.
تغيرت التركيبة العرقية والإجتماعية للولايات المتحدة بشكل ملحوظ منذ عام 2000 ومن المتوقع أن يستمر التغيير في التزايد بعد الإحصاء السكاني لعام 2010. يسعى مكتب الإحصاء السكاني لتحقيق خطوات مهمة لإعلام ومساعدة مجموعة كبيرة من الجاليات العرقية والجاليات التي تتحدث لغات مختلفة، بما في ذلك الجهود المبذولة لضمان مشاركة الجالية العربية الأمريكية.
تعد وسائل المساعدة اللغوية أحد الطرق التي يأمل من خلالها مكتب الإحصاء السكاني وشركاؤه في الحصول على مشاركة المزيد من الناطقين باللغة العربية. سوف يوفر الدَّليل اللغوي مساعدة باللغة العربية للإجابة على إستمارة الإحصاء المكتوبة باللغة الإنجليزية. كما توجد كتيبات، صحيفة وقائع، وأسئلة شائعة عن الإحصاء 2010 باللغة العربية متوفرة للتحميل على الموقع الإليكتروني: 2010Census.gov
يقوم مكتب الإحصاء السكاني بجهود كثيرة لإعلام العرب الأمريكيين بتوفر تلك الموارد الجديدة وأهمية ملء الإستمارة . سوف تبدأ حملة الإعلانات التي ستشمل جميع الولايات في يناير (كانون الثاني) وسيستمر بثها إلى أن ترسل إستمارة الإحصاء السكاني بالبريد في مارس (آذار) لعام 2010. وتشمل الحملة إعلانات باللغة العربية في التليفزيون والإذاعة والصحف ووسائل الإعلام العربية الأمريكية على الإنترنت التي توضح الفوائد المباشرة للإحصاء السكاني. تقرر بيانات الإحصاء عدد المقاعد التي تشغلها كل ولاية في مجلس النواب الأمريكي، كما تساعد في توزيع ما قيمته أكثر من 400 مليار دولار لتمويل المستشفيات المحلية ووسائل النقل والمدارس وخدمات الطوارئ.
تعتبر العديد من المنظمات العربية الأمريكية وقادة المجتمعات المحلية حاليا بمثابة شركاء لمكتب الإحصاء على المستوى القومي للمساعدة في إحصاء الجالية العربية. في هذا المجال تبذل هيلين سمحان، مديرة المعهد العربي الأمريكي (AAI) الذي يعتبر الشريك الرسمي لمكتب الإحصاء السكاني نشاطا واسعا في توعية الجالية بأهمية الإحصاء ومزاياه. فهي تنصح أفراد الجالية بالقول: ” إعتبار الإحصاء خطوة سهلة وآمنة ومهمة يمكن أن تتخذها من أجل تدعيم قوة أسرتك، وحيّك ومجتمعك”.
بالإضافة إلى ذلك، أظهر وزير التجارة غاري لوك تقديرا خاصا للجالية العربية بزيارة قام بها لديربورن في ولاية ميشيغان، إذ حث قادة المجتمع على توعية الجالية بمدى أهمية الإحصاء السكاني لعام 2010 والمساعدة في إزالة المفاهيم الخاطئة المتعلقة بمكتب الإحصاء. وقال، “إن الإحصاء السكاني 2010 لن يكون مجرد إنعكاس جيد على بلدنا فحسب بل سيكون له تغيير جذري على شكل البلاد خلال السنوات المقبلة.”
إستمارة الإحصاء السكاني لعام 2010 هي أقصر إستمارة في تاريخ الإحصاء، تشمل فقط على عشرة أسئلة قصيرة تتضمن معلومات عن الإسم والعمر وتاريخ الميلاد والعرق وما إذا كان المشاركون يمتلكون البيت الذي يقيمون فيه أم يستأجرونه. ليست هناك أسئلة عن وضع الإقامة أو أرقام الضمان الإجتماعي أو الإنتماءات السياسية أو الدينية. وجميع الإجابات سرية و لن تستخدم إلا لغايات إحصائية.
لمزيد من المعلومات عن الإحصاء السكاني لعام 2010 ٬ يرجى زيارة الموقع الإليكتروني : 2010Census.gov
The Afghanistan national cricket team won the 12 nation Asian Twenty20 Cup in Dubai on November 30th after defeating The United Arab Emirates by 84 runs. In the days prior to this victory, Afghanistan defeated China, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Saudi Arabia. This impressive performance has brought pride to the Afghan people in a way that no other sports team has been able to in the past.
In 1995, the Afghanistan Cricket Federations was formed in the capital city of Kabul with a very limited number of players. In 2001, it was promoted to a national team and later became a member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) and Asian Cricket Council (ACC.) In 2004, the team became more popular among the Afghans both in-country and abroad when they made their first international appearance at the Asian Cricket Council.
Cricket was first played by the British troops in Kabul in 1839, however it never took hold among native Afghans. Almost a century and a half later, the Russian invasion drove many Afghans into Pakistan, where they were not allowed to join domestic Pakistani teams. Still, the younger Afghan refugees were so impressed with the sport that they planned to start a team in Afghanistan. Now, the team has adequate facilities to play and a receptive audience to cheer them on!
Click Here For More information on Allied Media’s Afghan American Market
Abdul Raouf Reshtin
Allied Media Corp.
Account Manager
reshtin@allied-media.com
The United States ethnic and racial composition has significantly changed since 2000 and is projected to continue growing after the 2010 Census. The U.S. Census Bureau is increasing its efforts to inform and assist a wide variety of ethnic communities and language groups. This includes reaching out to historically undercounted groups such as Polish Americans.
The Census Bureau and its partners are taking several steps to obtain a complete and accurate 2010 count in the Polish American community. Language Assistance Guides will provide in-language help for Polish speakers as they answer the English-language Census form. Additionally, 2010 Census brochures, fact sheets, and answers to frequently asked questions have been created in Polish and are available for download on the Census Web site, www.2010census.gov.
Furthermore, the Census Bureau is increasing efforts to inform Polish Americans about these new resources, and about the importance of filling out the census form. A national advertising campaign will launch in January and continue airing when the census forms are mailed in March of 2010. The campaign will include TV, radio, print, and online advertisements that will be in-language on Polish American media outlets to explain the direct benefits of the census. The data decides how many seats each state occupies in the House of Representatives, and helps allocate over $400 billion in funding to community hospitals, transportation, schools, and emergency services
Polish American organizations and community leaders currently serve as national partners to help reach this audience. The Piast Institute, headed by Dr. Thaddeus Radzilowski, has been a consultant to the Census Bureau for 20 years. “We come together every 10 years to tell the world who we are and for the Polish community it is important. Many programs that are important to civic life are directly impacted by the census,” he says, highlighting the importance of the census.
In addition, several states provide funds for outreach to active non-profit organizations in order to help boost 2010 Census participation in select hard-to-count communities with low participation numbers in the Census2000. With the help of the “Count Me In” project in Chicago, the Polish American Association will target immigrants with limited English skills in 37 traditionally undercounted Chicago neighborhoods and cities around Illinois.
The upcoming census form will be the shortest in history, with only ten short questions asking for information such as name, gender, age, date of birth, race, and whether respondents own or rent their home. There are no questions about immigration status, Social Security Numbers, or political and religious affiliations. All responses are confidential and used for statistical purposes only.
For more information about the 2010 Census, visit http://2010census.gov.
Elena Lauterbach.
Eastern European Team Lead at Allied Media Corp.
elena@allied-media.com
