Challenge

That's pinche! Well somebody had to say it

Creating political change - via the people

Everyone loves an underdog. That’s why we started a social movement in Mexico City to get the people’s candidate selected.

When ordinary citizen Xavier Gonzalez Zirión tried to get selected for the Mexico City elections, he asked Maxus Mexico to help him get noticed by a major political party and convince them that he had what it takes to become their election-winning candidate. One problem. In Mexico all political candidates must be aligned with established political parties, and Xavier was not.

Solution

Unable to purchase any traditional media space, we created a social movement where the people carried Xavier’s messages for him.Residents were frustrated about the city’s chronic deterioration. So we distributed thousands of stickers with the word ‘pinche’ printed on them (a very bad word in Mexico which means ‘F***ing awful’).

We then encouraged people to place them around the streets of Mexico City, highlighting areas where poverty and crime were rife or where the urban infrastructure had broken down. Finally, we got citizens to photograph the stickers and upload them for discussion on social media.

Pinche
Results

The media were so impressed with the results, that they ignored the ban and took on Xavier’s message. So we quickly built a compelling outdoor and print presence to boot. The campaign ultimately resulted in political change, with Xavier being elected into office for PRI, Mexico’s biggest political party, in the city elections.