Unilever Bestfoods Kicks Off Voter Registration Drive At 13 Hispanic Festivals Around Country; Public Service Campaign By Knorr®, Country Crock®, Lipton®, Hellmanns®/Best Foods®, Ragu®, WishBone® and Lawrys® Brands Is Expected To Reach Approximately 3.3 Million Latinos

Eight Unilever Bestfoods brands will leverage their scheduled participation in Hispanic festivals around the country this presidential election year to register potential Latino voters. The campaign kicks off this Sunday at Miamis Calle Ocho Open House, the nations largest, Hispanic street festival.

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, NJ (PRWEB) March 12, 2004 -- With the rate of Latino voters at half the national average, eight of Americas premiere food and beverage brands have banded together this presidential election year to help provide a novel solution to the problem. Beginning this week, the brands, all manufactured by Unilever Bestfoods (UBF), will leverage their scheduled participation in Hispanic festivals around the country to register potential Latino voters. The campaign kicks off this Sunday at Miamis Calle Ocho Open House, the nations largest, Hispanic street festival.
   
Democracy cannot work without participation by all sectors of society," said James Fish, UBF Customer Marketing Manager and Hispanic Team Leader. By offering our presence at major Hispanic festivals to register Latinos to vote, we hope to strengthen our democratic system, while helping empower a community, which our brands value both as a market and as a culture."

The registration drives sponsoring brands are Knorr®, Country Crock®, Lipton® Tea and Soups, Hellmanns®/ Best Foods®, Ragú®, WishBone®, and Lawrys®. To carry out their campaign, they have included a voter-registration booth inside their newly created La Plaza Del Sabor, a traveling outdoor pavilion about half the size of a football field, which houses numerous kiosks and a central stage. Fashioned after the numerous plazas, or town squares, that dot the urban landscape of Latin America, La Plaza del Sabor will provide visitors with gifts, interactive games, food and entertainment aplenty at the 13 different stops it will make between March and September. UBF feels it will also provide a culturally relevant platform for encouraging eligible Hispanics to stop by and register to vote.

In all, UBFs voter-registration drive will reach a potential audience of 3.3 million persons, the combined number of attendees expected to visit the 13 festivals.

According to the U.S Census Bureau, in the 2000 presidential election only one of every four voting-age adults in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods around the country voted, approximately half the national rate of 51%. Analysts say apathy, the struggle for economic survival and a heritage of political oppression back home all contribute to the low level of Latino participation.

Yet at 35 million strong, Hispanics have eclipsed African-Americans as the nations largest ethnic minority. Approximately 23 million Latinos are believed to be of voting age, more than the entire population of any state except California. In all, Hispanics currently account for 13 percent of the population in 122 of the nations 435 congressional districts.

After Miami, La Plazas next stop will be Los Angeles, where the mammoth inflatable structure will hunker down at Fiesta Broadway, in the Downtown area, on April 25. Other festivals it will visit are, Houstons Cinco de Mayo Festival, at the George Brown Convention Center (May 2); Los Angeles Cinco de Mayo Celebrations, at Whittier Narrows (May 2); Chicagos Festival de Memorial Day, at Plaza Garibaldi (May 31); Elizabeth New Jerseys Waterfront Festival (May 29-30); New Yorks Concierto de Verano, at Flushing Meadows (June 27); San Antonios Hispanic State Fair, at Rosedale Park (July 11); Houstons Fiestas Patrias, at the George Brown Convention Center (Aug. 29); Chicagos Fiestas Patrias, at Sportsmans Park (Sept. 5); Los Angeles Fiestas Patrias, at Whittier Narrows (Sept. 12); Phoenixs Fiestas Patrias, at Glendale Park (Sept. 12) and San Joses Fiestas Patrias, at the Santa Clara Fairgrounds (Sept. 19).

Unilever Bestfoods North America manufacturer of Knorr®, Country Crock®, Lipton®, Hellmanns®/Best Foods®, Ragu®, WishBone® and Lawrys® is headquartered in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and is a unit of Unilever, one of the world's largest consumer products companies with annual sales of approximately $48 billion in 2003. It produces and markets a wide range of foods and home and personal care products. Unilever operates in around 100 countries around the globe and employs approximately 250,000 people.

Press Contact:
Sergio López-Miró or Adolfo Salgueiro
Hispania Public Relations, (305) 271-5680