Friday, January 16, 2009

New Campaign in Puerto Rico Asks : What's Wrong With Us?

A new ad campaign in Puerto Rico, focusing on respect for others, has launched, featuring print and television ads demonstrating the commonplace ways in which people disrespect each other. From not saying " I love you" or "good morning", to ignoring and insulting the homeless, to disrespecting older adults, to teasing, to cleanliness, the ads focus on daily routines and how disrespect has also become routine and second nature.

The campaign called , Que Nos Pasa, Puerto Rico?, so far focuses on values like courtesy, solidarity, respect, and friendship and via the site is looking for more values to highlight.

I couldn't find out who was behind the campaign except an ad/PR firm and possibly a university,
but such a focus begs the question if a lack of respect for each other is at the root of our problems and if tackling issues from this perspective will help to solve bigger issues.

4 comments:

Ulises Jorge Bidó said...

"New Campaign?" That Campaign started in 2007...Angel blogged about it back then, and it was actually well received by the people...

Erwin C. said...

Even if “Que Nos Pasa, Puerto Rico?” is not "new" and was launched nearly two years ago the issues raised by the campaign continue to be relevant today.

Like Maegan wrote, is a lack of respect "at the root of our problems"? With so many serious problems in Puerto Rico (economic, crime) does the campaign make sense? Will the campaign's emphasis on civility work? Who/what is behind it? To extrapolate things a bit, is the "broken windows" theory valid or hogwash?

(There are more questionsthe campaign raises but I'll leave it at that for now).

Ulises Jorge Bidó said...

"...so many serious problems in Puerto Rico (economic, crime) does the campaign make sense? Will the campaign's emphasis on civility work?"

I can offer an opinion to the first question and a very uninformed guess to the second one: It made a lot of sense and it could not have come at a moment too soon. Did it work? I think it did. I moved to Florida back last June, after living in Puerto Rico since 1985 and I can tell you things were going from bad too worse.

It was not only the crime and economic situation, but also a sense among the people that everything was going to hell in a basket. I think it was successful mainly because I noticed that it cached on among the people, and people started using the phrase "¿Qué nos pasa, Puerto Rico?" along with a smile to point out when someone was being rude or obnoxious.

I think also that the fact that someone thought that this was needed and came with the resources to put it together sends a very strong message too, but again...that's just my opinion

Anonymous said...

everything is wrong with puertoricans...EVERYTHING!