SPANISH TRAFFIC DEPARTMENT (DGT) - THE ICE PALACE
TALKING ABOUT CAR ACCIDENTS
AFTER SPAIN’S WORST HEALTH EMERGENCY
Every summer, DGT marks the beginning of the Spanish holidays with their polemic, overly-explicit traffic campaigns. But summer 2020 was different.
Spain had been the European country most impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. The workers in the public sector were exhausted and people were anxious to escape to their favourite places for a well-deserved break after a 3 months lockdown, one of Europe’s toughest.
We needed to prevent these drivers from rushing to the holidays that they so much deserved with a powerful but sensible message.
THE IDEA
We invited Olympic Ice-Skate Champion Javier Fernandez to be the first person to skate again at Madrid’s Ice Palace. Once his favourite court, the venue had been now famously used as a morgue for thousands of Covid19 victims.
In the film, the court becomes a metaphor for Javier’s thoughts and fears. He starts experiencing the joy he had missed so much, but quickly the choreography get darker, as if he could sense the danger hiding at every turn.
We needed to avoid being overly explicit, but we also needed to trigger a conversation in society. The campaign ‘We can’t lose any more lives’ was launched at an event by the Minister of Home Affairs F. Grande-Marlaska, and was followed by a short documentary film that provided a deeper look into the lives of those that were at the frontline of the national fight against the pandemic, including members of the special emergencies force, doctors, nurses and traffic enforcement services.
Our location choice ensured a very attractive hook for media: The campaign and its backstory were covered by every single major Spanish TV channel, radios and newspapers.
After serving as a morgue during the COVID emergency, we had to rebuild the ice of the court in record-time.
Shoot with a wolf. Check.
WHY I LIKE IT
Since the Spanish Traffic Department reports to the Ministry of Home Affairs, we aimed big and persuaded Minister F. Grande-Marlaska to create their most important campaign to date, involving members of the public health, emergencies and traffic enforcement services.
We had to overcome all sorts of obstacles to make it, but the happiness of the team after securing the directors’ first edit proposal was totally worth the effort.
CREDITS
Agency: McCann Spain
Year: 2020
Chief Creative Officer: Mónica Moro
Executive Creative Director: Ferran López
Creative team: Martin Subercaseaux, Álvaro López
Directors: Nico Perez Veiga & Erik Morales (TVC), Santi Ruffa (documentary)
Production house: Primo