ASDRA | ABSURD PROMISES | 2024
Why Is This Simpler Than a Politician's Promise, Yet Nobody Mentions It? / ASDRA "ABSURD PROMISES"
During Argentina's 2023 presidential election, candidates were making grand, nearly impossible promises, but not one of them said a word about people with disabilities. People with Down syndrome, in particular, were bound by an absurd law: even though their genetic condition never changes, they had to renew their disability certificate every single year or lose their rights. To expose this contradiction, VML and ASDRA started tweeting a certain index in real time during a live presidential debate.
The problem
In Argentina, more than 10% of the population is estimated to have some form of disability, yet in that election year, not a single candidate included disability issues in their campaign platform. People with Down syndrome were required to renew their disability certificate every year, despite the fact that their genetic condition is permanent and unchanging. 2023 was a presidential election year, and politicians were focused on making far more complicated, unachievable promises. ASDRA, a nonprofit organization, had been pushing to amend the disability law to ease this bureaucratic burden.
The insight
VML and ASDRA decided to highlight how complicated the candidates' promises were by contrasting them with their own simple request. Working with social scientists, economists, political scientists, lawyers, and journalists, they analyzed hundreds of documents and papers to develop a "Complexity Index" that quantified how difficult each candidate's promises would be to actually carry out. If you could show, in numbers, just how hard politicians' promises were to fulfill, it would also reveal just how simple amending the disability law really was. This contrast was the key to dragging a long-ignored issue into the center of the political conversation.
The idea
During the live presidential debate, they used the Complexity Index to analyze each candidate's main promises in real time, tweeting out a percentage that quantified how complex or even impossible each one would be to implement. The results were tweeted live, tagging each candidate, and set against a far simpler, concrete proposal: creating a new disability law. The algorithm VML developed measured how achievable each candidate's promises were, relative to the simplicity of amending the disability law, during the live 2023 presidential debate, tweeting the Complexity Index results in real time and tagging politicians alongside the proposal for the new disability law.
What happened
Their message reached both the candidates and the Argentine Congress, and the new disability law was approved and implemented nationwide at record speed. The reform benefited more than 5 million people with Down syndrome. Now, 100% of people with Down syndrome no longer need to renew their disability certificate, and their rights are recognized for life. The campaign won a Gold Lion in Creative Data and a Bronze Lion in Sustainable Development Goals at Cannes Lions, along with the Gran Ojo Creative Data award at El Ojo, among others—VML Argentina took home more than 100 awards in 2024.
Afterthought
Changing a law—and changing 5 million lives—through data and creativity. The weight of that fact is staggering. As VML's CCOs put it, this showed how the strategic use of data can drive a message that truly matters, in a context that demands both social innovation and sensitivity. That's real proof of what advertising can do. A voice that politicians wouldn't listen to got through, using numbers, timing, and humor. They quantified the absurd, set it against simple justice, and moved an entire country. If advertising can change society like this, we all need to take it more seriously.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2024
