A Mexican Living as an American

My transition from a plannabie at Miami Ad School to planning at Y&R brought me home for a good 3 months. During that time I got to live as a teen again. Depending on my parents for housing, food and TV. While I was finally able to appreciate all that my parents gave me I came to another revelation. Mexican's are vastly different from Americans. While this observation could of been made by any person who knows anything about both cultures, I was able to see it, live it and be it. I dedicate this blog to all my personal observations of my family's culture and the one we all currently live in.

Whistling as Communication

If your a girl, you've experienced this a million times over. Your walking down the steet, by yourself or with your friend, and some ugly ass dudes always in their late 30's to 50's start whistling. While most, in American culture, believe this is the only use of whistling now for Mexicans it is a lot more useful. Mexican's as I found out use whistling more like a language. According to linguists, "whistling arose in cultures (which later influenced the formation of the Mexican nation) that occuped areas where daunting terrain and distance prohibited easy conversations. Since the past is ever-present for Mexicans, it makes sese that the Mexican propensity to whistle-talk is a breathing cultural artifact.

Whistle-talk is broken down like this:
A sharp tweet is to catch someone's attention
A longer version show's disgust for performances
An even longer note to annoy non-Mexicans
Five successive, rapid trills that offend

Now these whistles are used in tons of variations like the whistle to catch someone's is personalized for everyone in the family. We kids get a different one than my mother. Other reason's to use whistling vs. verbal language are: frequency of whistle's carry farther, learned behavior living in an ambiguous environment, discretion and it's a lot classer than yelling.

So what does this mean to us, planners, advertisers and clients alike? Well this could be an interesting way of creating an execution specifically to the Mexican culture. Can a "secret" non-verbal language like this be used as part of a bigger brand experience i.e. Axe, Bom Chicka Wah Wahs? Can bringing back the whistle in a postive way be important for certain products?