What a way to end the year…

By Gene Bryan / HispanicAd

Just as we were ready to close this issue of HispanicAd, big news came of a huge accomplishment for our Hispanic Advertising and Marketing Industry as a whole. Daisy Expósito-Ulla has been inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame of America. She was also this year’s choice for The David Bell Award.

This announcement was made in Washington by the American Advertising Federation (AAF) making this its 69th anniversary and induction of iconic advertising legends. This is a crowning achievement for our Hispanic Market Industry but it goes beyond an individual.

Why? I’ll tell you why, at least I’ll tell you my opinion because over the last recent years our industry has been attacked from all fronts, we’ve been doubted and dismissed, we’ve seen some people in Corporate America suddenly questioning our validity.

Daisy’s recognition crushes the doubts and puts the spotlight on what we represent and what we are worth as the second largest Spanish-speaking country in the world, that thing that we always say and repeat: a country within a country.

It’s easy to say that elevating Daisy to the Hall of Fame (and on top of that giving her the David Bell trophy) is a deserve recognition of her proving ethics, entrepreneurialship, etc., etc. But this is more than that. This is a collective triumph for those like Alicia Conill, Eduardo Caballero, the late Diaz Albertini, the late Tere Zubizarreta, the legends like Blaya, Sosa, Aguilar, Bromley, the fighters like Orci, López-Negrete, Ingrid Otero or Luis Miguel Messianú. So many!

We’ve seen the incredible growth of López-Negrete in the last 30 years, fighting like an independent, we’ve seen Luis Miguel Messianú and his ALMA team sweeping the creative awards in Cannes this year, we’ve seen Gallegos “stealing the milk cart” from his Anglo counterparts, we’ve seen the folks from La Comunidad proving that we can create messages in English for General Market.

Daisy’s achievement proves it again that we as an industry CAN’T be ignored. Her win belongs very much to her, she earned it but it belongs to AHAA, the ANA and every one of us who believe in the U.S. Hispanic Market and give it a voice in Spanish, English and Spanglish.

We believers, yes, we believers. Let’s celebrate together and let’s embrace our colleague’s win as a collective win, let’s show the doubters in 2018 that we are here to fight and to stay!