Cinco de Mayo is just around the corner – do you know what it actually celebrates?
If you are like many Americans, chances are you’ll mistakenly consider that Cinco de Mayo (“May 5” in Spanish) celebrates Mexico’s independence from Spain. Forty-one percent of U.S. adults consider Cinco de Mayo is Mexican Independence Day, while 19% are unsure, according to a 2020 survey by the market research and analytics company. YouGov.
But Mexican Independence Day is recognized as September 16, 1821, the day a Catholic priest, Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, insisted that his parish resist the Spanish, and the 11-year war of liberation began. Cinco de Mayo, on the other hand, marks the date of the Mexican army May 5, 1862, victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War.
May 5, 1862 was a “great symbolic victory for the Mexican government” and galvanized the resistance movement
On May 5, 1862, Mexican President Benito Juárez gathered a group of two,000 men—many of whom were native Mexicans or of mixed ancestry—and sent them to Puebla, a small town in east-central Mexico, to fight Napoleon’s 6,000 French soldiers. Despite being greatly outnumbered and lacking heavy artillery, Juárez’s men forced the French to retreat in what they said was “a great symbolic victory for the Mexican government” that energized the resistance. History.com.
Although the French won the Second Battle of Puebla the following yr, the people of the state of Puebla began celebrating the holiday as early as 1863. As Mexicans immigrated to the United States, it was accompanied by certain celebrations and small festivals that grew in popularity in the mid-Twentieth century on college campuses in responses to pressure from the Chicano Movement for Mexican American civil rights, Wine enthusiast reported.
So why today’s mass confusion? Part of this could be attributed to the aggressive marketing campaign of the Nineteen Eighties.
In the Nineteen Eighties, Coors spent greater than $60 million on marketing to Latin American consumers
In the mid-Nineteen Eighties, Anheuser-Busch, Miller and Coors began an extensive marketing effort to reframe the holiday as a form of “Mexican St. Patrick’s Day” that might tap into the growing base of Mexican consumers, according to Wine enthusiast. Anheuser-Busch and Miller combined their Spanish marketing departments for this purpose, and Coors contributed greater than $60 million in marketing efforts to Latin American consumers. signing an agreement in federal court promising not to discriminate in hiring.
The pressure paid off for beer producers – a lot. Cinco de Mayo has turn out to be one of the most significant beer sales days in the US: in 2022, holiday week volume sales were 8% higher compared to the average week of the yr, and business sales increased much more, up 12% compared to an average week of the yr, according to Beer Institute data provided by Quartz.
Moreover, a 2018 survey from NationalToday.com, which surveyed 1,000 Americans about the holiday, found that 13% of them consider Cinco de Mayo is “just an excuse to drink” and the two hottest ways to rejoice are “eating Mexican food” (59%) and “drinking a margarita” (32%).
Of course, marketing around Cinco de Mayo and other culturally specific celebrations continues today, with countless brands participating on social media. However, firms that take the opportunity to recognize any of them would do well to consider why and how they select to highlight it – and avoid becoming one of those accused of empty platitudes without any real purpose or motion.