Credit: Brocreative/Adobe Stock
This month's Super Bowl halftime show was controversial in some corners of the United States because it was performed in Spanish, by Bad Bunny, a Puerto Rican artist.
Detractors complained that the halftime show should be in English, and an alternate show, run by the conservative organization Turning Point USA, aired, with Kid Rock headlining.
But the halftime show's numbers have proven the detractors to be in the minority. Bad Bunny's performance averaged 128.2 million live viewers, according to Nielsen data, more than the Super Bowl game itself. Within 24 hours, it had 4 billion social media views. It is among the most-watched halftime shows in Super Bowl history.
The alternate halftime show peaked at somewhere between 5 million and 6.4 million viewers during its live broadcast. It had about 19 million views on YouTube over the next 24 hours.
It's a sharp contrast that can probably be explained best by looking at the demographics of the United States. Since 2010, the multiracial population of the United States has increased by 276% while the country's "white alone" population has decreased by 8.6%. U.S. children are now majority non-white, with all population growth between 2020 and 2023 driven by people of color.
About 68 million people in the United States, or more than 20% of the U.S. population, speaks a language other than English at home, with Spanish being the most common non-English language.
Why does any of this matter for insurance professionals? America's increasingly diverse population holds tremendous buying power. The combined buying power of African American, Asian American and Native American consumers was $3 trillion in 2020, up from just $458 billion in 1990. The Hispanic market is the largest minority market, with spending power of $2.1 trillion in 2021, a 320% increase since 2020.
To do business in the United States going forward will require an understanding of multiple cultures and their needs, not an English-only approach. The Super Bowl halftime show understood that, and its potentially record-breaking number of views proves it.
Opinions shared in this piece are the author's own.
Photo credit: Brocreative/Adobe Stock
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