In addition to its importance to the sport and the culture of basketball, Unbreakable Courts is a project that has transformed the entertainment piece into a very powerful media. We released a song and a music video signed by one of the main Brazilian rappers, Rincon Sapiência with all the traditional strategy of a music release. But there, hidden in the lyrics, were the steps for anyone to make a court indestructible. We could not spread this message in the mainstream media – because then they would change the law on the transformation of public spaces into heritage.

Basketball is the second most played sport in Brazil, after soccer. There are hundreds of basketball courts in big cities, mostly located in peripheral areas due to the high square-meter value of the central regions. In a basketball court, unlike other sports, in addition to being a space that keeps teenagers away from violence as they are in the poorest areas of cities, a culture was created around it that brings together music, behavior, fashion, and graffiti.

However, at the same time, the big cities are expanding and occupying these previously undervalued areas, and with this real estate speculation, the square-meter price is growing. And turning any space into an investment.

The tendency is for these courts to disappear for the emergence of buildings.

A loss for the entire culture of the hood.

A risk for increased violence among young people.

Budweiser has created a movement to rebuild the basketball culture in Brazil. Involving the community and empowering them to fight for their rights. With 5 steps, supported by the Brazilian legislation, we promote an open-source method to transform street courts into a cultural heritage site, spreading the method throughout the country.

But we couldn’t spread this message on TV, in OOH or in traditional media. Otherwise, they would change the law. We need to reach only the consumers of street culture and basketball. Thus, we hide the steps to make a street court unbreakable in hip hop. Rincon Sapiência, one of the greatest Brazilian rappers, has released a music video, teaching everything in a didactical way.

Without street basketball courts, sports and culture will eventually lose the game. Budweiser and the NBA have been partners for a long time, and now we are going to show that this partnership can go even further. Budweiser found a way to prevent basketball culture from being smashed by new buildings. We overcome the law, with the law itself, by hacking the system with art. According to Brazilian law: “A place of public interest with artistic value is considered public heritage and cannot be demolished”.

We have created an open-source method that allows people to turn street courts into cultural heritage sites. On our hub, anyone could register a street block and find an artist to create a piece of art for that specific court. So, by filing a cultural heritage application, anyone can make a street court unbreakable.

Instead of making the courts on its own, to scale the range of our movement, Budweiser put power in people's hands. To do this, it created a method that gave anyone the power to turn a court unbreakable. For this, we created a hub, online, in which it was enough to put the zip code of the court that person wanted to preserve and find an artist among our options for him/her to make the artistic intervention in that place. In addition to this bridge of connection between society and art, it is our responsibility to sponsor the work.

The basketball community embraced the movement and Budweiser became one of the most respected brands in the Brazilian basketball culture. Budweiser empowered people. This made them believe that it is possible to change things. And if there is one thing that sports can teach us, it is that we should never give up the game.

In Brazil, street culture is usually seen as something marginalized and not culturally and artistically valuable. Artistic manifestations of this universe are often reprimanded, not only by people, but also by the State.

Our goal was to create a new look at street culture, using the law itself – often used to rebuke it – to, this time, protect it. Our goal was to engage people who, like the brand, want to take care of street culture, so that they are amplifying. Thus, the public who tend to care about and strengthen street culture, had in their hands a tool to put this into practice, in an affirmative and transformative way.