• by Tanya Gazdik , August 4, 2024

The National Football League is launching a bilingual PSA campaign to encourage U.S. Latinos to vote for their country’s future as part of a larger NFL Votes initiative.

The “Latino Votes” campaign, created and produced by MEL, features Carolina Panthers' Head Coach Dave Canales, the only Latino head coach in the NFL, delivering a pep talk in a locker room filled with a diverse group of Latinos. 

Founded in September 2023, MEL—short for Messianu/Edelman/Lerma—is a minority-owned, Hispanic-led integrated communications agency.

In the spots, Canales emphasizes that democracy is a game of voices and underscores how Latinos can shape their own future. He highlights the crucial importance of stepping forward this November, empowering them to act and, above all, to vote. 

The effort features a 30-second video and 15-second video and will run on broadcast and digital channels.

It focuses on three components of the electoral process, voter education, registration, and activation, and encourages eligible voters to actively engage in the  upcoming election cycle by helping them prepare for election day.

It was important that Latino NFL talent participated to inspire Latino fans to engage in their civic duties actively, says Marissa Solis, the NFL’s senior vice president of brand and consumer marketing.

"Latinos have the power to use their voices and votes to advocate for what they believe in – for the country and the local communities we live in,” Solis says in a statement. 

There is a 13.2M voter registration opportunity gap in the Hispanic electorate.

This partnership seeks to increase Latino voter turnout and ensure they exercise their voting rights. There is a significant opportunity to provide this community with information to engage them in their civic duties. 

According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), a 2022 post-election survey suggests that some young Latinos were affected by a lack of information. Among youth who said they were not registered to vote in 2022, only 12% of young Latinos said it was because it wasn’t important to them.