CORONA | SUN RESERVE | 2025
An Invention: Protecting the Sun With the Law / CORONA "SUN RESERVE"
For its 100th anniversary, Corona did something unheard of: it turned the sun itself into a protected reserve. Usually when you hear "reserve," you think forests or oceans — nobody protects the sun. And the way they pulled it off was a total legal hack.
The problem
More than half of Brazil's population lives along the coast, and that number keeps growing. As development continues, more and more high-rises go up, casting shadows over public beaches. Piedade Beach, one of Brazil's well-known beaches, was also one of the ones most covered in shadow.
The insight
Grey Brazil teamed up with Corona's legal team and dug up a property law nobody had ever paid attention to: if you lease the airspace above a piece of land, nothing can be built there. In other words, you can legally secure sunlight. What's impressive is that instead of just raising awareness, they built something that actually works.
The idea
They secured the rights to the airspace above Piedade Beach, with a contract renewed every three years. The idea of "owning the sky" is already pretty wild on its own. The brand leases the land and physically stops development from happening at all. The ad doesn't just "say" something — it "does" something.
What happened
The campaign won Gold and Silver at Cannes Lions, among other awards. Two locations are set to be implemented by the end of 2025, with expansion into other markets, including South Africa, also under consideration. This clearly isn't meant to be a one-off stunt.
Afterthought
At this point, this isn't really advertising anymore — it's conservation, plain and simple. A brand that's lived off beaches and sunshine for 100 years is exactly the kind of brand that could get serious about protecting the sun. Even after the campaign ends, the land contracts remain. Even after the ads stop running, the sun stays protected.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2025
Featured in
- Ads That Reached Into the LawBreaking rules, slipping through loopholes, rewriting statutes — eight ads, ordered by how far they reached.
