Sarasota Advertising Pedro Pérez exhibit broadens the definition of “art”

It’s not every day you see an anti-nausea medication on display in an art gallery.

However, its creator wouldn’t be bothered by passersby questioning the piece’s artistic validity. Pedro Pérez is the designer of the packaging for the bottle of Children’s Emetrol currently on display in the Patricia Thompson Gallery until Oct. 21. He believes if he has started a conversation about the definition of art, he has succeeded.

Nuevo Advertising Group worked with Wellspring Pharmaceutical to refresh the packaging of Children’s Emetrol, an anti-nausea medication, in order to create a more vibrant, kid-friendly look. Nuevo Advertising Group worked with Wellspring Pharmaceutical to refresh the packaging of Children’s Emetrol, an anti-nausea medication, in order to create a more vibrant, kid-friendly look. “Art, to people, is different,” he says. “I would argue with you that a landscaper is an artist. I would argue that an architect is an artist. I would even argue with you that a mechanic, to a certain extent, is an artist. It’s what we do and how we define what we do.”

The bottle is part of the Pedro Pérez exhibit showcasing work he has produced from his early college years until now. The collection includes everything from industrial and graphic design to web development and photography.

Ringling College of Art and Design has always believed in supporting alumni-owned businesses. A mainstream e-communications contract with a Hispanic ad agency founded by Ringling alumni has proved to be more than good will. It is good business.

Pedro Perez launched Nuevo Advertising Group along with his wife Roseanne in 2001. “E-commerce is not new,” he says. “It’s how we do it that makes the difference.” A multicultural approach and success level makes this campaign notable in my judgment as well.

Businesses drawing more Hispanic consumers

The inside of Super Market Acapulco Tropical bustled with shoppers and diners Tuesday, many who stood in line for the store’s ultra-fat burritos or freshly baked cookies and breads. Others formed a line at the meat counter or perused aisles filled with dried chiles, powdered spices, canned goods, with festive pinatas hanging overhead.

Hispanic Advertising Agency Connects for Success

The word “Hispanic” means many different things to many different people: Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, first generation, second generation, etc. It’s about more than language or what someone looks like. A Sarasota company, started by two Ringling School of Art graduates, measures its success by understanding the difference and capitalizing on it.

Florida Trend
Economic Yearbook 2007

SOUTHWEST: New Directions
A commercial boom.

Regional Trends

TRENDS: A booming commercial construction market is supplanting the stagnant residential market. … In Lee County, two new regional shopping malls have opened, and the Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center and Gulf Coast Hospital are undergoing a $200-million expansion. … In Collier County, government-related building will continue. … In Charlotte County, meanwhile, new office space and distribution facilities are finally lifting the area out of its Hurricane Charley malaise. “We’ve had very little space available for a new company to locate in Charlotte County. Now that picture is changing entirely,” says Charlotte County Economic Development Director Betty Williams.

Money spent on advertising directed at the United States’ rapidly growing Hispanic population has increased monumentally in the past few years.

But corporations and businesses have yet to fully take advantage of the Hispanic market, with many spending less than 1 percent of their budgets on Hispanic advertising, according to findings by the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies.

Marketing to Hispanics
They’re the fastest growing minority group in the U.S., and their estimated buying power is scheduled to hit $992 billion by 2009. But reaching this group is far more complex than hiring a translator.

“ I know I need to do it, but I don’t know what I need to do.” This is the most common statement Nuevo Advertising owners Pedro Perez and Roseanne Avella-Perez hear from new clients. Nuevo is the only ad agency in Southwest Florida to specialize solely on Hispanic marketing, and everyone from government agencies to businesses across the state rely on Nuevo to connect their business with this multifaceted demographic.

BEALLS WILL LAUNCH ADS IN SPANISH

Starting this fall, new radio ads for retail chain Bealls will tell shoppers to “vive el estilo de la Florida.”

The new Spanish language ads are more than a rough translation of the company’s familiar “live the Florida lifestyle” tagline. They’re an attempt to reach out to the state’s growing Latino population, a group wielding more spending power than ever and one sought after by retailers selling everything from groceries to cell phones.

Nearly one out of every six U.S. residents will be of Hispanic origin by 2010, according to U.S. Census figures. Hispanic buying power, which was estimated at $736 billion in 2005, is expected to grow to $860 billion in 2007 and $1 trillion in 2010, according to a study by the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia.

Last March the Grammy Award-winning Mexican musical group Los Tigres del Norte—perhaps the best-known band in all of Latin America, often referred to as the “Beatles of Mexico”—played to 4,000 well-dressed fans at the Sarasota-Bradenton Convention Center. Three-quarters of them had paid $60 per ticket, and the party went on until 3 a.m. Los Tigres del Norte has sold more than 50 million albums and performed before crowds as large as 150,000. Yet despite their international fame, there was no mention of the group’s concert in the local Anglo media.


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