For advertising professionals, a good advertisement is one that does not go unnoticed. And if anyone has aroused sensitivities and provoked controversy for decades among Latinos in Miami, it is Fidel Castro. That is why the Mad Dog Political Action Committee chose the Cuban leader to inaugurate its campaign in Spanish for the November presidential elections. Last Monday Castro’s photo appeared next to that of Donald Trump on a billboard in south Miami with the legend in Spanish: “No to dictators. No to Trump.”
The one from Miami has had more ads in Spanish against the Republican candidate. For the next four weeks, Trump’s photo will wave from a billboard on a highway in Phoenix, Pennsylvania, with the legend “Trump will deport you.” It is expected that a million people will be able to see it. Another of the ads reads: “Trump will deport your parents.” The Republican candidate has promised during the campaign that if he is elected president he will carry out the largest deportation of unregularized migrants that has ever been carried out in the history of the United States.
Those responsible for the controversial advertising campaign against Trump assure that they are going to extend it to other States. In addition to increasing advertising in Florida, Mad Dog PAC plans to place more Spanish-language ads on strategically located billboards in Arizona and New Mexico.
The Trump-Castro comparison raised eyebrows among Republican Cubans in the Sunshine State. Republican Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar contacted the advertising company to complain about the “deeply irresponsible and dishonest billboard that depicts Fidel Castro, a well-known murderous dictator,” she wrote.
After being displayed for five days, the following Saturday the advertisement was withdrawn and replaced by an advertising claim that reads “convicted felon” -convicted criminal, in English- next to the image of the Republican candidate. In May, Trump was found guilty of all 34 charges against the former president in the Stormy Daniels case, in which it was proven that he falsified accounting records to hide the payment of bribes to the porn actress with whom he had a relationship. The founder of Mad Dog, Claude Taylor, assures EL PAÍS that the fact that the controversial advertisement was withdrawn was not a result of criticism, but rather was planned in advance. The claim of the Trump-Castro tandem continued to ride throughout Miami on the sides of a truck throughout the weekend.
“I understand that many Cuban Americans are upset by the comparison. But for me it is total hypocrisy to oppose Castro and the terrible dictatorship that he had, to escape that tyranny and come to this country and want a right-wing dictator instead of a left-wing dictator. To me all dictators are evil, whether they are from the left or the right,” says Taylor.
A new advertisement has also been displayed on a truck through the streets of Miami with the same legend “No to dictators. No to Trump” along with photos of the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, instead of that of Fidel Castro, facing that of the Republican candidate.
Taylor says the ads are aimed at independent voters. “I don’t expect our posters to appeal to the Cuban MAGA lunatics in Florida who are part of the Trump cult. They weren’t the target,” he says. Taylor says that since the ad ran, his PAC has received hundreds of donations, some as much as $2,000 — a rare thing for a PAC whose donors mostly make small contributions of $10, $20, $50. “For us, normally a $100 donation is a big donation. Donations from Miami have really picked up in the last week.”
The Committee has placed more than 100 ads since January as part of its crusade against Trump, which are distributed throughout the key states, which will define who will be the next occupant of the White House. This time his campaign has focused on the presidential election and the anti-Trump billboards are distributed throughout the States of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina and Georgia. In its seven years of existence, the Republican candidate has been the favorite target of their advertising claims, but they have also campaigned, among others, for reproductive rights.
