MALVINAS SPOT
PRESIDENCY OF ARGENTINA
& Martin Sorrel got furious.
2348—23476/23
07–15–24
This one needs some context:
The Malvinas Islands are geographically within the Maritime Territory of Argentina.
In 1833 were occupied by Great Britain, and since then Argentina fights for its sovereignty.
In 1982, the most tragical war in Argentina's history occurred. A wound we never fully healed.
30 years later, with the proximity of the London 2012 Olympic Games,
we covertly sent an Argentine Olympic Athlete, who trained for 7 days in the islands without being noticed.
And with those secretly stolen images, we crafted this commercial which ironically states:
"To compete on English soil, we train on Argentine soil."
(Note: this was created way before the Cannes "hackvertising" fad)
The beautiful global story right after we launched it:
The UK’s Prime Minister, the Argentinian President and many other diplomats from both sides talked about this idea.
World's media went absolutely crazy. Even the UK used the Official channel to ask Argentina to take it off the air.
Meanwhile, Martin Sorrell (still owner of WPP) sent an open letter to all Y&R Network menacing our team.
And he forced us to take it off from Cannes Lions and all festivals, in advance
Here’s the letter Martin Sorrel sent to the network, which went into the world media headlines.
To read between the lines, first you need to know he’s an English Sir, knighted by the British Crown.
And secondly, while he and his team were publicly threatening us,
they were also congratulating us in private for the global impact it had.
Advertising at it’s finest.
Here’re some wild global repercussions.
Sorry for the shitty video, we edited ourselves in that moment.
W e were too young, too inexpert and too poor to make a good video.
And here’s another shitty Case Study, that doesn’t honor how big this was.
Our POV on this beautiful mess:
We’re still deeply proud of this idea and of using the power we have to say relevant things.
It got Argentina’s claim to the international public opinion as never before. And it was a huge stand for our country.
So we wouldn’t change that feeling for any Lion, money or anything.