SHOCKING THE COUNTRY INTO DEMANDING CHANGE

Mexico had become so numb to the marginalisation of Morenos that we were blind to the fact that Mexican media was full of Western-looking talent. Eighty per cent of the shows young people watch are movies and series that come from the USA.

Mexican adverts too always feature western-looking actors. The result was that 80% of the population never saw themselves on screen, billboards or in digital advertising.

It was time to change the ratio by demanding that more Morenos should be the star in the advertising we see on a daily basis.

We took our cue from Brazil, which established minority quotas in advertising in 2001, ensuring greater visibility and acceptance of minorities in society.

We could only truly celebrate “Lo Chingón Está Aquí”, or “Mexico is f*cking awesome”, if brands more accurately represented Mexico’s cultural diversity.

“NOT ALL BEAUTY IS WHITE”

Our execution started with mobile phone footage of a Western-looking actor berating a director for expecting her to stand behind a Moreno – a small snapshot of everyday prejudice seen in our industry.

We unveiled this on Facebook and it went viral, shared over a 1.5m times in 19 hours.

With outrage at fever pitch, we released a second video on Cerveza Victoria ?s Facebook and Twitter feeds, showing the actors coming together and explaining “not all beauty is white – advertising made you believe that.”

With consumers now debating the issue and journalists covering the issue on national TV and beyond, we then pledged real change.

Cerveza Victoria committed to use Morenos in all its advertising in order to celebrate Mexico’s diversity. We lobbied the Council of Prevention of Discrimination to persuade that others do the same.

14 MILLION PEOPLE JOINED OUR MOVEMENT

We received 234 pieces of press coverage – including national primetime TV news, El Universal, Buzzfeed and the New York Times – delivering more than US $3 million worth of coverage.

More than 14 million Mexicans used #LoChingónEstáAquí and mentioned Cerveza Victoria – we were the top trending topic on Twitter nationally.

Cerveza Victoria boosted its share of voice by 40% – 10% above target – and achieved its best-ever monthly sales.

Sales volume rose by 12% year-on-year.

But more than that, we’ve put a decades old problem on the public radar. We’ve made unseen discrimination highly visible. And countless brands responded to our call with the Council of Prevention of Discrimination.

We’ve started a movement for change…

Mexicans with brown skin had become marginalised in their own country. Uneducated, unemployable and unrepresented in advertising.

To kick start the process of ridding prejudice from our nation, we created a national debate and began a movement for real change.

Smart communications and national coverage of the issue helped us unite Mexico behind a new, 14 million-strong movement that celebrated the best of Mexican culture.

WE WOULD MAKE COMMON BEHAVIOUR UNACCEPTABLE

Before we could celebrate Lo Chingón Está Aquí we needed to show Mexico how deep-seated cultural attitudes have infiltrated daily life in Mexico.

To bring this to life, we devised three key strategic principles:

Firstly, we would need to confront our target audience of legal age beer drinkers with the unacceptable behaviour that happens every day in our country, which they had become numb to.

Secondly, we would need to show the damage that Moreno discrimination was doing, triggering a national discussion around the issue of skin colour. PR would play a vital role in ensuring that the issue in hitting the national spotlight.

Thirdly, we would present a call for change across our industry, with Cerveza Victoria leading the way.

Our goal: make “anti-Mexican” behaviour visible.

MEXICO IS GOING THROUGH AN IDENTITY CRISIS

Eighty per cent of Mexicans are “Morenos” – brown-skinned – they have become a marginalised part of Mexican society.

They never or very rarely appear on Mexican media, which is dominated by white Mexicans, and that includes the “Mexicans” we see in adverts.

But their struggles extend well beyond their lack of media presence. The country’s official statistics institute has found more than 70% of Morenos experience racial discrimination.

In any other country, this would cause national outrage – but in Mexico, it had become accepted. Morenos were second-class citizens.

So Cerveza Victoria, Mexico’s oldest beer brand, which has long championed the country’s history and heritage, set out to celebrate Mexico’s melting pot of cultures.

But we could only do that if confronted existing behaviour and created a movement to demand change.