Tatiana Pages of Greencard Creative: The term “American Latinos” reflects U.S. cultural duality

Tatiana Pages, CEO and CCO of the New York-based Greencard Creative, spoke with PRODU about where the term “American Latinos” comes from…and about the bilingual creative project for Smirnoff Ice.In 2007, Greencard Creative began developing its social platform called the American Latino Initiative, by which it seeks, through a movement of its followers, to stamp out the term “Hispanic” and replace it with “American Latinos.” “We believe that people who come to this country love American values and are ready to participate in all the different cultures here. Based on ethnographic studies we have made, we concluded that people who leave their countries of origin are already different from those who stay there – they come here with a much more American mentality in search of the values this country has to offer. There’s the economic part or course, but also the intellectual values,” Pages said.With that cultural basis in mind, they conceived their enterprise as a strategy and design agency. “We developed studies and strategies for conceptualizing brands and creativity, plus ways to publicize the brand across all media,” the executive said.With regard to the campaign La Vida con un Nuevo Sabor (Life with a New Flavor) for Smirnoff Ice, the agency tested to find any possible insight in common between Latinos and Americans that could be developed in a general message. “For Latinos, Smirnoff Ice is an American brand, but the flavors and colors are like Latino drinks,” Pages said.