• by Teresa Buyikian , September 10, 2024

Street food vendors in Los Angeles are as popular (if not more so) than even the highest rated fine dining restaurants, many with thousands of social media followers and nightly lines down the block. But unfortunately, with success often comes those envious of it. Thus many of LA’s over 10,000 street vendors have increasingly become crime victims, especially when serving customers after dark.

In order to “shine a light on the food, culture and community,” Sol Mexican Lager has launched the first of its kind solar-powered branded umbrella, designed specifically to illuminate  L.A.'s Mexican street vendors and promote safety.

Sol’s Solar Umbrellas also provide UV protection during the day, as well as being portable and easy to mount on the vendors’ carts while displaying Sol’s bright red and orange logo.

“Sol is a Mexican lager inspired by the sun that exists to brighten the world through authenticity,” Bob Vydra, associate marketing manager, imports, Molson Coors Beverage Company, told Marketing Daily. “Street food vendors have always been a part of Sol's world, because they are a good embodiment of bringing authentic food and culture to cities. Sol wanted to shine a light on street food vendors, literally and figuratively, to help them feel safer at night.”

The brand distributed the umbrellas to various Mexican street vendors throughout the Los Angeles metropolitan area, which were given out with the help of local L.A. influencers, according to Vydra.  The journey to create the umbrellas was documented in a promo video created by ad agency Alma, seen here, which also highlights the vendors themselves. The Solar Umbrella campaign is being promoted through earned media, paid social channels and paid influencer content. 

Sol is no stranger to guerrilla marketing and supporting the Latino community, added Vydra, pointing to the brand’s Sol Artist Series campaign in 2022. The campaign’s goal was to raise awareness “of the dearth of Latino representation in American museums,” at only 2.8% of art actually produced by Latinos. The beer maker filled limited edition bottles with a fraction of beer (resin in reality), 2.8% to be exact, with stark labels stating, “2.8% IS NOT ENOUGH.”

Additionally, this year Sol is making a donation to the Accion Opportunity Fund, a nonprofit that provides financial support and loans for Latino-owned businesses and entrepreneurs.