A marketing campaign that highlights Hillary Clinton’s role as a grandmother backfired on twitter Tuesday.
Tweets that proclaimed Clinton is “not my grandmother” trended on the social media in response to a post to her website that compares her to your abuela.
The listicle gave “8 ways Hilary Clinton is just like your abuela”—using the Spanish word for grandmother.
“In a sense trying to appropriate another culture’s endearment term for a person very highly respected in the family is very dangerous territory,” says Mike Johansson, senior lecturer of communications at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
After the hashtag began trending, the campaign changed the post to “7 things Hillary Clinton has in common with your abuela.” Johansson says the campaign’s response should have been more direct.
“‘I did not intend any disrespect. I certainly understand that I may have overreached.’ Or say something. But to say nothing on social media, in the very venue where you’re being bombarded with criticism, I think that’s a mistake in this case,” says Johansson.
Many on twitter used the #notmiabuela and #notmyabuela to tell stories about their own grandmothers, often recounting tales of immigration to the United States.
“‘Here’s a real picture of my grandmother. She was a very hard working person. She suffered a lot.’ And then people took it to the next step and said, ‘This hardworking person is nothing like this person who wants to be the next president, who had a very privileged background,’” says Johansson.
Rochester’s Ibero-American Action League is a non-profit organization that does outreach in the local Latino community. As a non-partisan organization, they chose not to address the campaign directly.
“The Latino community is certainly grateful and appreciative when anyone makes a truly genuine effort to reach out to us. That’s in general terms, not referencing this campaign,” says Tricia Cruz-Irving is the director of communications.