• by Aaron Baar , August 5, 2009

Boost Mobile is honing its Hispanic-targeted marketing effort with a series of new commercials that show how people can become immune to all pain after suffering from the "abuse" of additional fees and charges from wireless carriers.

"Hispanic consumers know all too well that things in life are painfully unfair, yet they don't often do anything about it," Peiti Feng, manager of advertising and media for Boost Mobile, tells Marketing Daily. "They accept the abuses as part of life."

"By Accident," the second installment of the company's "Sin Abusos (No Abuses)" campaign, demonstrates how customers accustomed to abuse from their phone companies no longer fear having an accident, Feng says. In one television commercial, a construction worker accidentally shoots his co-worker with a pneumatic air gun. The coworker, however, doesn't feel the nails -- they land repeatedly along his back -- because "he has suffered so much at the hands of his cell phone service that now he can take anything." In contrast to other carriers' hidden fees, with Boost's program, "$50 means $50," according to the commercial.

Other commercials in the campaign depict an overexcited friend unconsciously pulling a compatriot's hair while watching a soccer match and a man voluntarily grabbing a sizzling hot plate from a cousin at a family reunion.

"By making the scenarios relevant to the daily activities of Hispanic consumers, Boost Mobile sends them a wake-up call to tell them to stop accepting the abuses," Feng says. Previous spots in the campaign depicted scenarios such as oblivious people being sucked dry by mosquitoes and attacked by dogs.

The "Sin Abusos" effort is intended to complement Boost's general market effort, "Unwronged," which compares scenarios that are "wrong" (such as a grown man being carried in a baby sling) to the wrongs of the prepaid wireless industry. "Sin Abusos takes the same stand against the wrongs (abuses), but the wrongs portrayed in Sin Abusos are more relevant to the Hispanic consumers," Feng says. "Both campaigns share the same straightforward, fun and confident tone."

The "Sin Abusos" campaign will run on Hispanic networks such as Univision, Telefutura and Azteca America. Other elements of the campaign include network radio, billboards, phone kiosks and guerilla outdoor tactics. The campaign will run through the end of 2009, Feng says.