McCann Offers Peek at Lives of Latin America's Poor†

Interpublic Unit Forms Bodega Division to Tutor Clients in Marketing to the Region's 'Emerging Consumers'

Wall Street Journal, December 8, 2008 — During presentations at McCann Worldgroup's office in Bogotá, Colombia, staffers have taken to letting a chicken loose to hunt and peck around clients' feet.

Racks of potato chips and other products on display in McCann's Mexico City conference room, which has been designed to look like a bodega.

In Mexico City, the big advertising agency hired a local merchant to install racks of potato chips and otherwise transform its conference room into a bodega, or corner grocery store. Clients lunch on tacos served on a plastic table mat.

The point of these exercises: to give big marketers some insight into the lifestyles of Latin America's low-income consumer.