Bolivia: The Evo Strikes Back in Viral Video

In Latin American countries, the themes of political campaign ads may vary between the inventive, the edgy and the downright silly. But what type of ads is most effective? It’s a question that comes to mind after watching a recently released spot from Bolivia that has become a viral video.

“Bolivian Wars: El Despertar del Sí” (“Bolivian Wars: The Awakening of Yes”) was done for the campaign in favor of constitution reforms allowing President Evo Morales to run again in 2019. The video shows scenes from “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and superimposes Morales’ face on several characters representing the Resistance such as Finn. The Dark Side is depicted by faces of former leaders prior to Morales getting into power in 1998 like ex-president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada as the villainous Emperor. In order to hammer the good versus evil point home, the video shows real life images of deep unrest and violence during the “gas wars” of 2003. The video ends mentioning that its “premier” will be on February 21st, which is the date of the constitutional referendum next year.

Published seven days following the world premiere of the latest “Star Wars” entry, the official video on the Sí Bolivia Facebook account has received at least 139,000 views and has been shared over 3000 times.

Video Critical of Brazilian World Cup Becomes Viral

Street protests continued in several major Brazilian cities on Wednesday including police firing tear gas at some 30,000 demonstrators before the Mexico-Italy Confederations Cup match in Fortaleza.

Numerous images of the protests have become widely circulated such as a photo taken of a Rio de Janiero policeman firing pepper spray at close range in the face of a shocked and possibly terrified woman.

Hundreds of videos depicting the rallies as well as people's reactions to them have been uploaded on YouTube and other websites.  One video recorded before the protests, however, has gained viral status and received approximately 1.8 million hits in only three days:

The video was made by Brazilian filmmaker Carla Dauden and describes her ire over Brazil hosting the World Cup next year.

"Suddenly there is all this money available to build new stadiums and the population is led to believe the World Cup is the change they need for their lives to get better. But the truth is that most of the money from the games and the stadiums goes straight to Fifa and we don't see it so we don't get it and the money from tourists and investors goes to those who already have money," said Dauden who was born in Florianópolis and lives in the U.S.

Video of the Day: “We never forget…”

Earlier this week we highlighted a very simple yet stunning ad directed by Brazil’s Washington Olivetto for Folha da Sao Paulo. For our final post of the week we will revisit another award-winning work by Olivetto. This time it is a tender, heart-warming commercial for a Brazilian lingerie brand. While one would associate overt sexuality with lingerie ads (see: Victoria’s Secret) Olivetto takes a much different approach to create a highly memorable commercial (video link):

Note: The linked ads above are Not Safe for Work.

Monday’s VOTD – Al Jazeera’s take on the elections and the Latino community

Tuesday’s VOTD – Ad for Brazilian newspaper Folha da Sao Paulo

Wednesday’s VOTD – Political ad for an Argentine presidential hopeful

Thursday’s VOTD – Commercial for the Peruvian Cancer Foundation

This afternoon’s VOTD – Ad for Danone

Have a great weekend everyone!

Sources- YouTube, The Latin Americanist

Video of the Day: Silence isn’t golden

We continue our theme of this week's videos of award-winning ads from the Americas. This commercial comes from Danone and won several top honors in Mexico. It is not a very uplifting ad so don’t watch it if you’re in a sad mood (video link):

Later today we’ll end our week with a funny ad from Brazil.

Sources- La Radio en Mexico, YouTube

Video of the Day: Flipping the message

Yesterday we looked at an award-winning ad from Brazil’s Folha da Sao Paulo. Today we take a glimpse into politics.

Some would describe this video from the 1964 reelection campaign of U.S. president Lyndon Johnson or the infamous “Willie Horton” ad as the most memorable political videos ever. Yet the following is a political ad from Argentine presidential candidate Ricardo Lopez Murphy that is simple yet speaks volume in its message of hope for Argentina. No wonder it won a Silver Lion at last year’s Cannes Ad Festival (video link):

Sources- YouTube, The Latin Americanist

Video of the Day: The importance of the Latino vote via Al Jazeera

The following video is a recent news report from Al Jazeera on the growing importance of the Latino community to the U.S. presidential race. Check it out (video link):

What do you think about the video?