So I was reading a Hispanic advertising trade publication, and I was served an ad for the 2010 Census in Spanish.

Being the curious mind I am, I clicked on the ad, and was taken to this Web site:

http://2010.census.gov/espanol

At first, I was excited to see what looked like a very engaging Web site, with a cool Flash tile showing a “snapshot” of America via a nondescript busy urban intersection. However, almost immediately, I was confused to see the first showcased story to be that of “Neme”, an immigrant from Africa. Was that an attempt to showcase the racial diversity of U.S. Hispanics and connect with Caribbean Hispanics?

Then my eye wandered down to the “¿Un Retrato de los Estados Unidos?” box showcasing that horrible ad / inside joke that run during the Super Bowl and I started to suspect that this site might be a literal translation of their main English Web site.

A quick jump over to http://2010.census.gov/ confirmed my suspicions. The Census has well over $340 million, and they didn’t take the time and resources to create a unique, culturally appropriate Web site for the 45 million Hispanics living in the U.S.?

I’m not saying they needed to create that looked radically different from the main Web site. They could’ve very easily extended the IA structure, colors, and branding elements and then incorporated unique content for the Hispanic market. Come

on, showcasing that horrible Christopher Guest ad, that even AdAge’s Bob Garfield criticized as an inside joke only relevant to the couple of thousand people that live “between 79th and 110th, between Broadway and Riverside Drive” in Manhattan, to the Hispanic market shows how little time was put into this site.

Again, I’m not saying they needed a $9 million Web site like Recovery.gov, but a little strategic thinking and relevant content would have been a good investment.

Maybe in 2020…

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