Keep Walking Colombia
For over 40 years, Colombia was torn apart by one of the longest civil wars in the world. In 2016, the signature of a peace agreement finally brought an end to the conflict.
With its Keep Walking spirit, Johnnie Walker has always been a firm believer in human progress, and wanted to celebrate the brave men and women who contributed to Colombia’s progress.
The impact of our efforts was more than 6,000 Colombians, naked in Bogota with a common ideal: unity and peace for Colombia. They connected with each other on common ground and saw each other as fellow humans despite past divisions. Johnnie Walker had the honour of facilitating this powerful moment, which far exceeds any other brand metric.
The resulting film was positively received, prompting conversation between Colombians and people all over the world.
On the day of the event we made the news with over 500 media outlets like The Huffington Post, VICE, and El Spectador covering the story.
Online, we gave 20.1 million people in sixteen markets a front row seat to this moment of Colombian unity at a time when this story was most topical due to the signature of the peace treaty.
Positive comments cheered “yes to peace, yes to equality, yes to social inclusion, because we are all Colombians, we are one”- a true expression of pride and unity in Colombia.
With the world talking about the story for weeks, we showed Colombia’s inspirational shared belief in a better tomorrow and inspired others with the power of human progress and the difference it can make.
Creatively, we learned that politics, culture, and brand ambition CAN come together, nurture each other and flourish.
The film we envisioned needed to spread a message of hope for a better tomorrow for Colombia. We used 3 main visual elements to get this message across.
Interviews
We interviewed key protagonists from all sides of the conflict to hear their inspirational stories. All interviews were shot using the eye direct system, a mirror system that gives someone being interviewed the feeling they’re talking to the interviewer, while they are actually looking straight into the lens of the camera, establishing a sense of intimacy and activating the viewer to really think about what our protagonists were saying.
A visual depiction of contemporary Colombia
To give the film its cinematic feel we travelled all over Colombia to gather a rich visual depiction of contemporary Colombia. We’ve focused on images of an optimistic nation moving forward, looking ahead to a better tomorrow rather than the differences they’ve had in the past.
The Spencer Tunick Shoot
The grand finale of the film was the shoot of a nude art installation by Spencer Tunick in Bogota, which brought together 6000 people from all sides of the conflict. This didn’t only function as a physical get together of people from all sides, but also gave the film a poetic climax strengthening its cinematic feel.
Our task was to create a movement that would bring unity to people from all side of the conflict and from there create a film to tell the story around it. Our ambition was to paint a modern picture of Colombia under the form of a documentary. Using cinematic lenses, we would capture all the different landscapes, people and textures that makes Colombia so unique. We would go up close to Colombian people, filming them skin against skin, and in intimate and touching moments. We would make Colombians proud of their country and of their progress.
We had to be mindful of the brand’s role within this story - for such a political and emotional piece it was important to find the right tone to tell the story sensitively.
Although the story was at its heart Colombian, it was crucial that we told it in such a way as to make it resonate globally with human truths at its heart.
Jury Feedback
FILM CINEMATOGRAPHY / BRONZE
‘The DP was able to create very consistent, beautiful and considered images within a documentary format.’
Jury Feedback
FILM CINEMATOGRAPHY / BRONZE
‘The DP was able to create very consistent, beautiful and considered images within a documentary format.’