Bloomberg: How a Bad Bunny Beer Ad Got Puerto Rico Tax Money to Shoot in LA
For Bloomberg, reporter Angelica Serrano-Román took a look at the public film subsidies flowing to companies making commercials. In the case of one, the shoot took place primarily in Los Angeles, despite getting a subsidy from Puerto Rico.
“With hundreds of beaches and year-round summer weather, Puerto Rico seemed the perfect setting for a tropical-themed Corona beer ad—all the more, with the commonwealth contributing almost $800,000 in taxpayer subsidies to bring it to life.
Bitten LLC, a local media production consulting firm, told the commonwealth’s film commission that the production would generate 46 local jobs and book 120 hotel nights.
The tax credit application was part of a Corona brand campaign, “La Vida Más Fina,” created in 2020 by the ad agency MullenLowe. But the work in Puerto Rico focused primarily on capturing landscapes and background plates. Filming the stars—rappers Bad Bunny, a Puerto Rico native, and Snoop Dogg—occurred in a studio in Los Angeles, and the video component for television was directed over Zoom, according to people who worked on the campaign.”
Serrano-Roman reported that film tax credits were regularly sold by film companies, which have little to no tax liability. Companies such as Apple, Walmart and Bank of America buy them to reduce the amount of taxes they owe and would have otherwise paid.
Read the full story at Bloomberg.