So, what if I could find tits and fish sticks all in one place? A one-stop shop for all my breast and seafood needs?
This is what’s on my mind today after Gorton’s fun website snafu. They launched a web page for Spanish-speaking Latina moms this week, and left one teeny tiny accent off a fairly important word. They turned mothers and seafood into, well, something a whole lot raunchier than what they probably intended.
My first thought, when I landed on the home page, was, “Blow jobs and seafood?”
Then I thought, nah, I had to have read that wrong. Maybe my Mexican slang abilities were slipping. So I looked at it again from a South American Spanish angle.
I consulted another Latina mom friend and showed her what Gorton’s had done. After she stopped laughing, she pointed out that where she’s from, “mamas y mariscos” could additionally translate to either “tits and gay men” or “blow jobs and gay men.”
At this point, Gorton’s deliciously beer-battered fish fillets were the furthest thing from my mind. I was thinking, “I wonder if Gorton’s knew what they were getting into when they decided to go after the Latina mom market.”
I was also thinking, “I wonder if they’ve ever tried making perfectly round, C-cup-sized salmon patties.”
I know that it’s hot to jump on the market-to-Latina-moms bandwagon at the moment, but I can’t help but wonder how many culturally and linguistically fluent Latinos are actually working on these campaigns in positions of power. Were there really so few behind the scenes at Gorton’s that they let a typo that big slip through?
One single accent over the final “a” in “mamas” would have made all the difference in the mundo. Mamás = multiple moms; mamas = my mother would probably wash my mouth out with soap.
They’ve changed their mistake already, which is kind of a bummer — I enjoyed imagining a mythical shopping center where human body parts and ceviche shared shelf space — but I do hope that the next time a brand tries to target me, they pay attention to the small details that can turn an earnest catchphrase into an inadvertent punch line.
Bernadette Rivero is the president of The Cortez Brothers, a production company and creative development hub in Los Angeles dedicated to getting Latin culture right. She is also a mom and enjoys fish sticks.
Screenshot courtesy Laura Martinez.
UPDATES:
- Gorton’s apology is now in the Comments section below.
- Bernadette’s response to Gorton’s apology ended up as a whole new post: Thanks for the apology but…