12 Best Spanish Ads for Language Learners
Watching Spanish TV shows and movies is great for learning the language, but we don’t always have the time for it. Plus, long-form content can be overwhelming for beginners.
Watching Spanish ads is a great way to get in some quick practice, and they can serve as mini cultural lessons. Let’s take a look at some examples of great Spanish TV commercials available online.
Contents
- 1. Mastercard — “Nacho’s Unforgettable Day”
- 2. IKEA — “Don’t We Know Our Family?”
- 3. Campofrío — “A Good Base is Everything”
- 4. McDonald’s — “Night Run”
- 5. McDonald’s — “Love the Most”
- 6. Bimbo — 1980s Bread Commercial
- 7. Bimbo — “Who Wants Bread?”
- 8. Pedigree — Talking Dog Ad
- 9. IKEA — “The Other Letter”
- 10. Super Bowl — Commercial Compilation
- 11. Spanish Christmas Lottery — “The Greatest Prize is Sharing It”
- 12. Spanish Christmas Lottery — “The Christmas Fat One”
- Why Watch Spanish Ads?
- And One More Thing…
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
1. Mastercard — “Nacho’s Unforgettable Day”
This heartwarming advertisement for MasterCard (titled “El día inolvidable de Nacho” in Spanish) shows a young boy who’s obsessed with soccer as he realizes his dream. He speaks pretty slowly so you can follow along, and his voice will tug at your heartstrings.
You’ll also hear a few lines of dialogue from his parents who speak a bit quicker for an added challenge. You’ll want to watch it more than once and you can always turn on the subtitles if you need some extra support.
2. IKEA — “Don’t We Know Our Family?”
This commercial might break your heart—or cause you to finally break your smartphone addiction. Titled “¿No conocemos a nuestra familia?” in Spanish, it shows Spanish families competing in a quiz that reveals they know a lot more about social media trends and YouTubers than they do about each other.
At just over three minutes, it will give you a good amount of content and various voices for listening practice. You can also pick up quite a bit of vocabulary and expressions that Spanish speakers use in real life.
3. Campofrío — “A Good Base is Everything”
This Spanish ad shows a funny interaction between a couple establishing some baseline agreements before they get married. They’re extremely frank with each other, which might just be the key to a happy marriage.
The Spanish title “Una buena base lo es todo” refers to the importance of both the foundation of a marriage and the base of a pizza.
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This commercial and a few of the others in this post are available on the FluentU platform. You can watch them with interactive subtitles to learn new words and then add them to a flashcard deck for later review.
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4. McDonald’s — “Night Run”
This is a sweet commercial that gives a glimpse at the joys of impending parenthood and the dedication it can take to keep a loved one happy—and well-fed! This slice-of-life story is also excellent for language learners.
The first few phrases are in English but after those, the remainder is in Spanish. Note the smooth pronunciation of all the Spanish dialogue and the idioms used. The twist at the end is sure to make you smile!
5. McDonald’s — “Love the Most”
This is a another great McDonald’s commercial because it provides comparison practice as well as the use of descriptions. It’s a short, sweet family story where the father is both lovable and wise.
It’s short enough to watch a few times so feel free to press “repeat” and speak along with the dialogue for some pronunciation practice, too.
6. Bimbo — 1980s Bread Commercial
Visitors to South America will recognize the Bimbo bear and appreciate this vintage commercial. It’s a touching mother/daughter lunch tale with English subtitles.
The value of this one (aside from the cuteness!) is the cultural context. It gives us a chance to see a typical family interaction in Spanish and listen in on the action.
7. Bimbo — “Who Wants Bread?”
This commercial, another one for Bimbo bread, will have you humming the song after you watch it. If you’ve ever wondered what a Spanish earworm sounds like, give this one a listen!
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The super-simple and catchy song called “¿Quién quiere pan?” in Spanish offers a perfect bite of listening comprehension and pronunciation practice.
8. Pedigree — Talking Dog Ad
This one has English subtitles, but the action is so straightforward and the dog’s pronunciation is clear enough that even beginner Spanish learners could understand it without them.
Watch it the first time or two for the language-learning potential… and watch it a few more times for the adorable dog! At only 22 seconds, it won’t take long.
9. IKEA — “The Other Letter”
IKEA knows how to present a dramatic commercial! In this ad, parents read Christmas letters written by their children. All I can say is, bring the tissues. It’s beautiful and poignant, just like the previous IKEA ad.
And it’s a gift for Spanish language learners. The dialogue is authentic and most of it’s spoken slowly and with great emotion. It also comes with English subtitles, making it accessible for beginners.
10. Super Bowl — Commercial Compilation
This compilation of English-language commercials from the 2016 Super Bowl has Spanish subtitles, making it a great tool for early beginners. You’ll draw associations between the words you’re reading and what you’re hearing to build your vocabulary.
You’ll also visualize Spanish spellings and sentence structure without getting lost. Check out the slang terms and watch for the trickier punctuation marks. Try to write down any new Spanish words and their English equivalents.
11. Spanish Christmas Lottery — “The Greatest Prize is Sharing It”
The lottery commercials from Spain are really special. They highlight a big event for many people and the commercials are almost as widely-anticipated as the lottery drawing itself.
This moving commercial from 2014 is called “El mayor premio es compartirlo” in Spanish. It tells the story of a Christmas lottery drawing that’s less about winning money and more about friendship. The ad is subtitled and there are a few characters so you’ll hear some variety in spoken Spanish.
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12. Spanish Christmas Lottery — “The Christmas Fat One”
This 2015 commercial can primarily help with your Spanish reading skills. You’ll see written words at the factory where the main character works, in a newspaper on the bus and more. The story is beautifully animated and is a definite heart-grabber.
Like the commercial above, it also does a great job of illustrating the cultural phenomenon of the Spanish Christmas lottery that you might not be familiar with. This lottery is often referred to as “El Gordo,” hence the commercial’s Spanish title “El Gordo de Navidad.”
Why Watch Spanish Ads?
While they’re usually designed to sell a product, for Spanish learners the worth of commercials and other advertisements is in the language learning potential they offer.
The language is specifically written to be accessible to a large audience but will also often expose you to common idiomatic vocabulary. Since the commercials are created by and for native Spanish speakers, you’ll hear authentic accents and pronunciations.
Plus, the whole point of a commercial is to grab and keep your attention. That makes them a fun and useful learning tool. And, let’s not forget this—they’re free!
Let me warn you: Spanish ads can become addicting. You’ll come for the learning and stay for the stories.
Watch, listen and learn. Advertisements aren’t just for snack breaks anymore!
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
And One More Thing…
If you've made it this far that means you probably enjoy learning Spanish with engaging material and will then love FluentU.
Other sites use scripted content. FluentU uses a natural approach that helps you ease into the Spanish language and culture over time. You’ll learn Spanish as it’s actually spoken by real people.
FluentU has a wide variety of videos, as you can see here:
FluentU brings native videos within reach with interactive transcripts. You can tap on any word to look it up instantly. Every definition has examples that have been written to help you understand how the word is used. If you see an interesting word you don’t know, you can add it to a vocab list.
Review a complete interactive transcript under the Dialogue tab, and find words and phrases listed under Vocab.
Learn all the vocabulary in any video with FluentU’s robust learning engine. Swipe left or right to see more examples of the word you’re on.
The best part is that FluentU keeps track of the vocabulary that you’re learning, and gives you extra practice with difficult words. It'll even remind you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. Every learner has a truly personalized experience, even if they’re learning with the same video.
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