“Fifteen minutes in 15 years isn’t much” but it is something.
Pablo Larrain’s ‘No’ and the ad campaign that helped replace Pinochet
The movie opens with a pitch -
“First of all, I’d like to say that what you are about to see fits with the current social context. We believe the country is ready for communication like this. Today, Chile is thinking of the future.”
Delivered by advertising hot-shot Rene Saavedra (Gael Garcia Bernal), these opening lines are heard thrice throughout the film - to sell Free, a new brand of Soda to the young and impressionable, to promote a telenovela, and to sell the idea of a better future, of hope and happiness to a country ridden with poverty and suppression.
Set in 1988, and shot with vintage film cameras in almost a documentary-style format, Pablo Larrain’s Oscar-nominated No (2012) dramatises the advertising campaign that led to the ousting of military dictator Augusto Pinochet in the 1988 referendum. The plebiscite resulted from mounting international pressure on Pinochet to legitimise his rule in the country after 15 years of authoritarian dictatorship.
Saavedra is approached by leaders of the suppressed political opposition to build a No campaign that will run for 15 minutes every day on Late-night TV, for an entire month preceding the vote. The Yes Campaign gets its mandated 15 minutes too.
Before they get him on board, they’re working with truth - stories of brutality, interviews that lay bare the pain and trauma of suppression, of disappearances, of poverty. It’s hard-hitting stuff, but it’s ugly. Or as Bernal’s advertising genius tells the opposition point blank, 'I don't think that sells'
They set out to find the product that would replace the rule of Pinochet, and they settle on the promise of Happiness, Hope and Joy.
It looks like a Coke commercial - it’s got picnics, mimes, humour, ballet dancers and celebrities, real ones too as Larrain uses much of the original footage from the historical No campaign. Some of the people who were a part of the effort back in ‘88 joined the cast too. They’ve got a simple yet sticky tagline and jingle to go with. Guns and tears are replaced with a big rainbow logo that eventually is sold on streets and printed on T-shirts and merch. It is a great advertising campaign - and despite the consistent intimidation and threats from the Yes Camp, they produce, program and broadcast 15 minutes of optimism and happiness for 30 days.
In the end, they win. The story wins. As well-told stories often do.
Anyone looking for the truth honestly and with minimal effort even, can find it. But as an interview with a housekeeper in the movie during an early brainstorming session shows, it isn’t the deciding factor. She agrees that the disappearances and the violence are awful, but she adds that it is in the past “My general says we are a democracy now”
It is about the stories you’ll buy. The truths that will damn you, the narrative that will sink you or help you swim through a storm. It is true in the individual sense that we find what’s relatable and fits into the context of our personal histories, belief systems and the extent to which we choose to meet our truths. And it’s truer still for a collective, where it’s so much easier to dispel personal accountability behind the noise of a mob. Pinochet’s referendum took place well before the internet existed, imagine what a million tweets a minute would have done to the public sentiment back then.
I have been procrastinating on writing this piece for a few days (for basic life- and work-related reasons), but yesterday’s change in the tide made it timely.
Hope is the product we’re buying here. It promises a slightly different reality than the one we’re living today. You’d think love and hope will make a better product than outright hate, but no communication strategy works overnight. National-level programs - from sanitation, to clean water, to women’s safety, to disease alleviation - all rest on a massive communication framework and manufactured showmanship where even the smallest unit has a purpose, an objective and a timeline that usually spans years.
Here, the No campaign worked by being kinder and replacing religious rhetoric with human impact stories - and that works better. Advertising hinges on human insight and experience - it’s hard to have someone remember your story if they don’t feature in it. I remember ads from the 90s that I still love, some are being rebooted and reproduced with the current social context in mind because human truth and emotion pretty much stay the same. We all want love, freedom, joy and look out for hope. You tell me happiness is coming and like an entire country’s population in this movie, I’ll be more than glad to buy it.
