A special Cupid for Valentine’s Day 2025.

Today we celebrate love and affection. Aside from its romantic undertones, Valentine’s Day — especially in our Latin countries — goes beyond the symbolic red roses to remind us of the incalculable value of friendship and family. To send a BIG HUG to our faithful readers, we’ve gotten a hold of a most enjoyable and fun-filled dialogue between a couple of emblematic ad people who candidly let us peek into their lives. Here, Hall-of-Famer Daisy Expósito-Ulla and her life-and-business partner, award-winning filmmaker Jorge Ulla, talk to the Creative Team from their agency, d expósito & Partners, revealing with humor and vitality some tips about how they met, their staying power and also share an amusing anecdote about two young creatives in need of money. Enjoy the piece. HispanicAd wishes a Happy Valentine’s Day to all our clients — ad and media agencies, TV and Radio stations and networks, Digital, P.R. and Research companies, and trade associations.

¡Viva el amor!
— Gene Bryan

“Blame it on that green dress!” A Q &A on love, life and the beautiful madness of advertising.

A chat with Daisy Expósito-Ulla and Jorge Ulla.

By: dex Creative Team

• How did you first meet?

Daisy: On a very cold winter day in NYC. I was at an editorial house cutting a McDonald’s spot I had produced. The doorbell rang and I opened…Jorge: I remember she had a cold and was sneezing a lot. She was wearing a green dress. Daisy: He was working on an independent film he had directed. We were each married at the time and a year went by before I saw him again: same post-production place, same girl opening the same door, same guy showing up. Only difference?: By now, we had both divorced. Jorge: Fate? And, of course, the fact that she had been totally mesmerized by me from the first encounter! Daisy: See! I love his sense of humor! The thing is that we picked up the conversation from where we had left it a year before. Uncanny. That evening we went to a screening of a Julio Iglesias’ movie directed by a close friend. Jorge: We bonded musically!

• How long have you been together?

Daisy: Almost eight years living together, 38 years married. Jorge: Enough to win the Nobel Prize for Patience! Daisy: Yeah, crazy! Jorge: Keep in mind we were young —veeery young! — when we started. Daisy: OMG! We’re still young! Jorge: Young & Rubicam. But that’s another story: I tipped her about a job opportunity there for a Creative Director position and look what happened — she became a star and made it all the way to the Advertising Hall of Fame! Daisy: I thought I wasn’t ready for the job, but he literally pushed me. Jorge: She’s humble, she doubts herself all the time. She demands a lot from herself.

• Was there something specific about the other person that caught your attention right away?

Daisy: A million affinities! Cinema, food, the arts, music, Cuban music, people…Jorge: But I’m sure what really caught her attention right away was my impressive physique —a perfect Adonis. Daisy: Yes, tall, dark and handsome. Jorge: And she totally fell in love with my velvet sombrero!

• What moment or event made you realize there was something more than just a friendship?

Daisy: The moment I began to think that his snoring was music. Jorge: I don’t snore, Daisy, you’re making that up!

• What was the “spark” that ignited your connection?

Jorge: Beyond the physical chemistry, there’s that kindredness of spirit. First comes the “chispa” of course, but then comes the glue that keeps it all wrapped up together. Daisy: It’s that wink in your heart, that sense of mutual trust that tells you…Jorge: … That you’re in this together in an almost conspiratorial way…that you read each other’s mind… Daisy: That you can finish each other’s sentence. Jorge: We can argue at times when we work together… Daisy: … But we work beautifully together — years of producing ideas, projects, a family… Jorge: … Dreams!

• Were there any funny or unexpected moments that you both still laugh about?

Daisy: We are laughing all the time. Jorge: Even —or more so — in times of horror. Daisy: We gravitate to people with a sense of humor. We’ve been fortunate to meet and befriend brilliant people who help us find those moments of laughter. Jorge: Beware of people who take themselves too seriously. Daisy: Absolutely. Jorge: Life is a cabaret, old chum. Let me share this anecdote. We were freelancing as creatives years ago and got hired to adapt the Chuck Full O’ Nuts coffee jingle into Spanish. This was before Nespresso and today’s buzzing celebrity-owned coffee brands with George Clooney and Sofía Vergara and before Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso,” of course. Daisy: Oh, my Lord —what a memory! Jorge: … So, we had been hired by Peggy Morton Black, the heiress and widow of William Black, the founder of the coffee brand, and she had been a cabaret singer who sang the famous Chuck Full O’ Nuts jingle on all radio and television spots. She was the owner and she insisted. She wanted us to adapt the jingle and “coach” her to sing it in Spanish. To make a long story short, she gracefully invited us to her apartment and she was totally in character and dressed for the part: A folkloric dress with an apron that had a touch of vintage reminiscent of the Alps and an unintended dash of the Gothic aesthetic. All at once! And the rest of the story, well, you can imagine it: Peggy and the Spanish language wouldn’t get along at all and Daisy and I couldn’t make sense of that surreal moment we found ourselves in. She was the sweetest, though, extremely nice —and we got paid a huge amount for those days, the late Seventies. Imagine us, struggling young creatives, being cut such a big check! Today, every time we look back we can’t stop laughing at ourselves and the beautiful madness of advertising, something right out of an SNL skit!

• Looking back, what do you think made your bond so unique from the start?

Daisy: Shared values. Jorge’s Cubanness. Curiosity and reciprocity… and laughter and lots of love! Jorge: Yes, love, and the ability to laugh at ourselves. Daisy: I guess that’s it… Jorge: … And maybe that green dress you were wearing when I met you!