Only the Best for our Señoras

I feel like I should have completed this post a lot earlier, since it's really a preliminary and surface-level topic. However, my research for this blog post has taken a little bit longer than I had thought, and thus, it is a little bit late.


Over the past few months I have taken to creating my own poll among my friends' señoras, asking which television channels they watch, which radio stations they listen to, and which newspapers they read, if any. We often talk about the struggle of power between El Pais and El Mundo, but I wanted to find out which news outlets really stood out among our host families.

First, I took to noticing my señora's habits in terms of television watching and newspaper reading. Although my host family is on the younger side (43 years of age, respectively), they are a very conservative household as opposed to most families that are of this age with young children. My señora reads ABC, although her husband is subscribed to El Mundo (and regularly gets Metropoli periodicals). Although she is very specific about the news that she reads, she is not so picky about the news that she watches. She'll flip through any news channel to avoid commercials or to watch the story she is most interested in (usually involving politics).


After asking the help of my friends (7 of them), I gathered the following data about their señoras' habits:


The most popular news channel among señoras was:

The most popular newspaper among señoras was:

The most popular magazine among señoras was:

The most popular radio station among señoras was:

(Note: most señoras said they didn't really listen to the radio or didn't have a favorite station but mostly liked to listen to the news on the radio)

The most popular sports periodical among señoras was:

(Note: most señoras did not read sports periodicals. In a few cases, their husbands or sons read Marca, and in a few other cases they said if they were to read a sports periodical, they would read Marca)

In conclusion, it seems as though most of our señoras seem to be going with the grain and choosing some of the more popular outlets to get the media they're looking for. They are very concerned with the news, especially foreign affairs and politics, and they do care about what is going on with the royal family and local celebrities as well as known foreign celebrities. They are not as into sports as their husbands, but they are knowledgeable about the subject, and even though most of them are conservative, they tend to read and watch more independent news.

Real Bwin Madrid Bwin Game Bwin

This past Wednesday night, a few friends and I went to the Real Madrid game vs. Real Murcia. Although I don't really follow football, it was a very exciting game and we won 5-1!

During the game I couldn't help but to look around the stadium and take notice in how this stadium and its home team makes money in advertising dollars. It was impossible not to notice that everywhere I looked, the entire stadium was covered in ads that only featured four letters: B-W-I-N.


At first, I looked to the team's jerseys of course. As we have spoken about before, Real Madrid's primary sponsor is Bwin.com, which is an Austrian online gambling site. Real Madrid makes roughly 20,000,000€ each year featuring the bwin.com logo on its jerseys. 

The team not only utilizes the jerseys to advertise the site, but spectators can also expect to see bwin.com signs all over the stadium, in flashing lights and also painted in the grass behind each goal in large black and yellow lettering. In addition to real outside advertisement, bwin.com is featured on Real Madrid's main website on the right sidebar, encouraging fans to bet on Real Madrid games. A small photo representing the gambling box is shown below:

According to a BBC news article circa September 2009, Bwin.com has been featured on the team's jerseys since the start of the 2007-2008 season, and has signed a contract with Real Madrid to remain its main advertiser until the end of the 2012-2013 season. Again, Bwin.com has earned the team 20 million euros per year since 2007, enabling the team to sign on major players such as Christiano Ronaldo. 


Some of the other Real Madrid sponsors that are advertised at Santiago-Bernabeu other than Bwin.com include Adidas, Audi, Coca-Cola, Mahou, and STC Telecommunications. All of these worldwide recognized companies generally have a connection with sporting teams, especially considering major companies such as Adidas and Coca-Cola.


In the past, Real Madrid was sponsored by another four-letter company called BenQ, a technological/electronic company. So the real question is, what is next for Real Madrid? After 2013, will it continue its contract with bwin and plaster B-W-I-N all over everything, or will a new four-letter company take its place?

A Little Behind

This past Sunday, I attended the European Music Awards' free concert that was held at the Puerta de Alcalá. Me and some ten thousand other Madrileños were there to enjoy the night's festivities. However, my friends and I were very surprised by some of the reactions that audience members had; to the music, and to the bands themselves. The lineup for the night was as follows:


1. 30 Seconds to Mars: a band whose name I've only heard uttered once or twice in my lifetime. I thought these guys would be little more than an opener for the night's big stars.


2. Katy Perry: one of the biggest chart-topping stars in the states as of now. All of her singles have been in the top 10, and she keeps on knocking them out of the park. She was the reason we all came to the free concert.


3. Linkin Park: this was a band that was famous when we were all in middle school (a.k.a. 8 years ago). We thought they had disbanded, but really more than anything we were completely overwhelmed by how many more Linkin Park fans there were in contrast with Katy Perry fans.

Linkin Park's Performance

When 30 Seconds to Mars hit the stage, we were all completely flabbergasted by how many fans there were in the audience. None of us had ever heard of this band before in our lives. Why would MTV even bring them here? Well, apparently they're incredibly famous in Spain. Who knew?

Another part of the night that blew our minds was when KANYE WEST made a surprise cameo! He literally rapped for only 55 seconds, but for us it was the best part of the night. Kanye is a god in the United States. After we were finished being completely taken aback by his appearance, we noticed that no one around us cared at all or had any idea who he was. So, I took it upon myself to ask around. "¿Conoces Kanye West? ¿Él es popular aquí o no?" Everyone shook their heads at me; no one had any idea who he was at all.

Kanye's Quick Performance

We also noticed that during the breaks between artists, MTV would play American songs. The only thing was that we had never heard of any of them... yet! I took it upon myself to check the iTunes Top 10 purchased as well as the MTV (US) top Music Videos list and this is what I found:

All of these songs, above and below, are completely new to me. If I were in the US right now instead of in Spain, I would be listening to all of this current music (whether I like it or not) on radio stations, on television, in commercials, and advertised all over the place. They have yet to make it over the big pond.

Anyways, the point I'm trying to make here is that even in terms of mainstream music, the taste here in Spain is much different than that of the United States. At least it is a lot more different than I had assumed. In addition to that, just like in terms of US cinema, Spain has to wait a little bit longer to get the chart-topping songs that have already hit North America, which is why we didn't recognize any of the in-between songs that were playing at the free concert.


It's definitely going to be very interesting to go home and hear what the US has playing on the radio...!

Diseño en España

These are some of the images of great design that I had taken the past week:

¡Sangre!

Recently, my señora has taken to invite me to watch las noticias with her and her family. Every night at 9pm, just before dinner at 10, she asks me if I’d like to watch 24h with them as a family. It always warms my heart when she asks, but there are some nights where I just can’t stomach watching the news, especially when I know I’ll have to eat later.

Why is that, you ask? Well I guess you could say that I’m a little squeamish when it comes to blood and guts, and that Spanish media have no problem showing either of the two on basic cable. As a citizen of the United States, I’m used to a more strict censoring system. When American journalists cover violence or homicide stories, we see images of policemen, maybe a hint of a scene of the crime, and probably an interview or two with witnesses or close friends to the victims. Here in Spain, when a violent story or homicide is covered by one of the news channels, there are no qualms about showing dead bodies, blood trails, or even actions involving extreme violence (as I recall images from Barcelona during the “Huelga del 29 de Septiembre”). Below are two images that were featured in recent news videos (one on television and one online) that would never be shown so explicitly in the United States:

I sit there with my jaw to the floor reacting to these violent and gory images as my younger host sisters (ages 5 and 10, respectively) sit there completely undaunted by what the news is showing them. At times, my señora shouts “¡cierra los ojos!” when she knows something may be too heavy for the children, but they never react.

I wonder whether these violent images desensitize Spanish children to the real world, or whether like video games in the United States, they serve as something to blame for childrens’ misguided or violent actions.

Spanish Cinema Follow-Up

Just as a quick follow-up to my previous post, I took notice of something this weekend. A friend and I went to go see "La Red Social" in the Capitol Theater near Santo Domingo this past Friday. We made some very interesting observations:


1. Movie theaters aren't open here until 4:00pm. We wanted to go to a matinée or something of the sort (around maybe 1:30pm or 2:00pm), and ended up waiting at a Starbucks for two hours just for the theaters to open.


2. The Social Network is a recent release in Spain, and yet my friend and I were the only people attending the film! Is this because no one goes to movies, or because they wait until much later at night?


3. There are three different kinds of movie theaters here in Madrid: Hollywood film theaters (of which there are many), Spanish movie theaters (of which there are a few less), and mixed (of which there are very few).


4. Patrons are given assigned seats in these movie theaters. We were lucky that we were the only people in the theater and could pick our own seats, as the assigned seating had us almost right underneath the screen.




Also, we accidentally saw the movie in Spanish.

Spanish Cinema

When I was taking notice of billboards and outdoor advertising this past week, I also decided to focus on looking at Spanish cinema; which movies are shown, who goes to the theaters, and what Spanish citizens think about Spanish vs. Hollywood films.


At first I took a closer look at the advertisements I was seeing around me. “Come Reza Ama” and “Siempre a mi Lado” were the most common ads I was seeing in terms of cinema, and as we all know, those are Hollywood movies. When we first arrived in Spain, I was bombarded with advertisements for the newest Karate Kid movie, almost two full weeks after it had already been released in the United States. It has been difficult to find advertisements for Spanish movies altogether, but I did manage to see one on the way back to my house one day after school. Here is a report of the top movies in Spain since early May:

http://boxofficemojo.com/intl/spain/

As is clearly seen in the above chart, Hollywood movies always take the top spot. There are no Spanish movies listed whatsoever.


Current films that are being advertised on ecartelera.com include "The Social Network," "The Town," and "Harry Potter 7." Rarely are Spanish movies even advertised on the website, with the occasional exception. Here is a look at the Top 10 films in the Spanish Box Office for the weekend of October 8-10, 2010:

http://boxofficemojo.com/intl/spain/?yr=2010&wk=41&p=.htm

As you can see, the Top 10 Movies for this past weekend were American-made films. Coming in at #11 was a Spanish film called Amador, which only grossed $300,249 for that weekend. So, out of the top 11 films for the weekend $11,285,927 was grossed in total box office revenue, and out of that $11 million, only 2.6% of the revenue was thanks to Spanish-made films.

I decided to take this to my Spanish home, and I asked my señora and her children (who frequent the movie theaters) which were their favorite movies, what they thought of Spanish directors such as Almodovar and others. Carmen, my señora, much prefers Hollywood movies, as does my señor. The children are more excited to see Hollywood movies than Spanish movies, such as Shrek and Toy Story 3, and the upcoming "Ga'Hoole: La Leyenda de Los Guardianes." When I look around at the vast DVD collection that my señor has accumulated, I have surmised that more than 85% of his collection consists of Hollywood films. All in all, I think it's pretty safe to say that Spaniards can't get enough of Hollywood films.