Cannes Lions

The Dream

DDB SPAIN, Madrid / HEROES OF TODAY PLATFORM (LALIGA, IBERIA,AMC NETWORKS,DKV, DUREX, BAVIERA, FEPM) / 2022

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Overview

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Overview

Background

The world of sport is full of thousands of brands that promote and encourage sport. All of them usually launch messages of struggle and self-improvement: "Never give up", "Fight for your dream until the end". Etc. Curiously, many of the thousands of female athletes who suffer sexual abuse have confessed that these kinds of messages have made them endure and endure without making public what was happening. This campaign uses entertainment to denounce this very specific situation in the world of sport. The campaign is signed by the Platform "Heroes of Today", which is made up of brands closely linked to the sporting context such as LaLiga profesional football league, the Pentathlon Federation and other sponsors.

Idea

This is an entertainment film starring a coach who uses a motivational speech to lift the spirits of an athlete who is about to throw in the towel. All the phrases he uses (never give up", "fight for your dreams", etc) are typical of this type of speech. Surprisingly, in the end we discover that the coach was sexually abusing her and that this inspirational speech was actually a toxic speech to hold her back and prevent her from denouncing what is happening. The girl finally decides to tell, and her final speech concludes with a powerful phrase to the press: "FUCK THE DREAM", a way of freeing herself,of freeing all the pressure suffered after years of fear and silence, and of telling the world that there is no need to be afraid to denounce these situations,no matter how much pressure the "never give up" speech puts on you.

Strategy

The discourse of "never give up and pursue your dreams at any cost" has destroyed the lives of thousands of today's female athletes, because it has made them put up with abusive situations in order not to break their dreams. This piece of entertainment is the first to tell them just the opposite: "if that's the dream, fuck the dream". A film that encourages them to go public about abuse without fear of all the suffocating pressure that society puts on them with messages that say all the right things but actually hurt them (such as the hackneyed "never give up"). This campaign uses an entertainment film to spread a message that is so necessary for the world of sport that no brand has ever said it before, representing an exercise in bravery on the part of all the participating brands.

Execution

The film is set in a big sports stadium just before a gymnastics final. In the changing room we see an athlete who is broken, emotionally beaten. From now on, we see how her coach launch an emotional speech to empower her, where he encourages her not to give up ever: he reminds her of all the injuries she has overcome, all the sacrifices her parents made and how close she is to victory. He encourages her to not give in. Finally she leaves the changing room and a voiceover reveals the terrible truth: her coach sexually abused her and the whole motivational speech was really an attempt to keep her down. The film concludes with this reflection: “if this is the dream … fuck the dream”.

Outcome

207 million estimated impacts and a goal achieved that goes beyond PR: the film was acquired by the world's leading entertainment networks not as an advertisement but as entertainment content to be aired on Hollywood Channel, AMC, Sundance, and AXN among others.