Narco Store was based on a local Cultural Insight: there is a stigma that Colombians carry, that they haven't been able to shake off: the Narco stigma.

And with the revival of the narco culture thanks to new Tv series, documentaries & Narco tourism there is been an increased sense of admiration, pride, and support for Pablo and the Colombian Cartels.

That is why the idea is relevant for this category, it was a creative implementation of media for a Foundation, and it was an innovative way to achieve their objective: to target a worldwide audience.

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 website with the e-commerce unavailable, so people against it while, they reported the page and verbalize their rage, end up spreading the site.

That action attracted the antagonistic audience, our main target.

Later, we open the store and reveal the true nature of the site, and 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.

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.

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.

And we have to demystify it, what happened and keeps happening is a reality that is painful for Colombians, and the rest of the world doesn’t seem to understand it, behind every TV series’ character, movies, and entertainment there is suffering, death, disappearances, attacks and pain of real families. It’s not fiction.