Univision Communications broke out a big name for its annual upfront presentation, with former President Bill Clinton sitting for a Q&A with Fusion anchor Alicia Menendez. Clinton started off with a zinger, acknowledging that he was “well aware” that he was the warm-up act for presentation closer Ricky Martin.
Clinton trumpeted the vast demographic shift afoot in the U.S., and the increased significance of the Hispanic community’s purchasing power. “There’s data available, and I’d get it and study it if I were an advertiser,” he said.
Clinton also spoke of the concept of “radical inclusion”—that more inclusive societies, he said, reap economic benefits. “Wherever it is practiced” around the world, Clinton said, “good things are happening.” Conversely, divisive cultures are where “good things are not happening.”
“It’s not rocket science,” said Clinton.
The axiom relates to domestic flashpoints such as Baltimore and Ferguson, said the former president.
Asked what keeps him up at night, Clinton spoke of “people killing their way to the top” in an effort to “bring down vulnerable societies”—citing modernized Muslim nations as being among the vulnerable.
He mentioned climate change and an “unequal society” here at home, but was optimistic that there are fixes for the world’s ills. He urged the crowd to “be upbeat and relentlessly forward looking.”
Clinton did not talk up his wife’s presidential ambitions during his 10-minute Q&A.
He suggested everyone be in “the future business,” acknowledging that it may be a funny sentiment coming from the oldest guy in the room.
“Be constantly creating a better tomorrow,” Clinton summed up. “Cooperation is better than conflict.”
