Narco Store was an idea based on the cultural insight that even though Pablo Escobar died 27 years ago, Colombians still carry his stigma, especially since in past years, there is been a revival of the narco culture thanks to new Tv series, documentaries & Narco tourism. So we capitalize this insight to allure the target audience to our e-Commerce and creatively change their perception so they could understand that behind every TV series’ character, movies, and entertainment there is suffering, death, disappearances, attacks, and pain of real families. It’s not fictional for us.

Pablo Escobar died 27 years ago, but Colombians still carry his stigma, especially since in past years, there is been a revival of the narco culture thanks to new Tv series, documentaries & Narco tourism, which resulted in an increasing sense of admiration, pride, and support for his figure. We were approached by Colombia con Memoria Foundation to bring awareness to their cause and to increase donations to keep helping with orientation and aid for legal fees to the more than 10.000 families whose lives were damaged by narco-trafficking.

We launched Narcostore worldwide, an official e-Commerce with more than 200 specially designed products inspired by Pablo Escobar and the Colombian Cartels, but it worked as a decoy. When people tried to buy the products, they were confronted with the reality behind narco-pride: testimonies of the victims' families of drug trafficking with a clear message, to reflect on what’s behind the glorification of the narco culture and instead donate the same amount to the Foundation.

We had two opposite audiences, people who idolize Pablo and his culture, and people against this trend (mainly Colombians). So we found a way to capitalize both.

We started the day by launching the Narco Store brand but the e-commerce was unavailable. Immediately people spoke up against it, but every time they reported the page and verbalize their rage helped to spread the site.

That action attracted the antagonistic audience, our main target.

Later in the day, we open the e-store and reveal the testimonies that explain the true nature of the site. Both targets share the resolution of the campaign and donate to the cause.

Narco Store was launched worldwide on the anniversary of one of the most sanguinary narco attacks: the Avianca flight, with the site, an OLV spot, and accounts on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

The e-Commerce had more than 200 specially designed products inspired by Pablo Escobar and the Colombian Cartels but worked as a decoy. When people tried to buy the products, they were confronted with the reality behind narco-pride: testimonies of the victims' families of drug trafficking with a clear message, to reflect on what’s behind the glorification of the narco culture and instead donate the same amount to the Foundation.

The campaign lasted a week on Social Media, but on the first day was TT on Twitter and was talked about in local and regional news.

On the first day, we had 46 million impressions, more than 230.000 new users from 163 countries, with a bounce rate of 39%. And more importantly, a 200% increase in foreign donations.

The campaign lasted a week on Social Media, but the e-commerce page is still available and still gets organics visits from all over the world. Increasing the average time spent on it to 18 min.

Colombia con Memoria Foundation helps with orientation and aid for legal fees to the more than 10,000 families whose lives were damaged by narco-trafficking, and even though they have the most inspiring purpose they were on the verge of closing. They understood that to change that situation they had to change their approach and not only appeal to the hearts of Colombians but foreigners too.

That inspired our campaign because to do so, it was fundamental to explain to foreigners what Colombians knew all along, behind every TV series ’character, movies, and entertainment there is suffering, death, disappearances, attacks, and pain of real families. It’s not fictional.