We've seen some creative advertising campaigns from Corona beer in the past, but this time it's come up with something very different. Its Fisherman Storytellers initiative aims to support Brazilian fishermen during the annual fishing ban, providing them with income as tour guides.
To promote the initiative, it's released a beautifully handcrafted 60-second short that was made using woodcut stopmotion animation – and there's even a pop-up book on way (see our guides to animation styles and the best animation software).
The short film was produced by the Brazilian visual arts studio Black Madre and the advertising agency Africa Creative. Their aim was to transform the oral histories of traditional fishing communities into tangible art.
Black Madre chose the techniques after researching Caiçara art and culture. The team settled on the boat, the essential mediator between fisherman and sea, as the campaign’s central metaphor.
The resulting aesthetic then emerged organically through experimentation with materials and techniques, which led to a decision to employ layered storytelling and stop-motion animation using woodcarved scenes.
The studios describes the piece as the most ambitious handcrafted work it's done to date.
“This project was born out of a deep creative development process, diving into the Caiçara aesthetic and exploring how to combine this visual language with storytelling in the most powerful way," said creative director André Maciel says. “That’s why we used wood and those worn, weathered textures — everything was guided by this path.”
Each key visual represents a legend from fishing communities, including the 'Cracked Island', the 'smallest fish' and the 'Fisherman of Fishermen'. The first is the story of a fisherman's encounter with a massive catch that splits an island in two – the moral being to only take what you need.
Every object, layer and element was made of wood. Some, like the fish, island and octopus tentacles, were hand-carved using gouges (see the making of video below).
"We started with raw wood, and I personally carved it, digging into the material to sculpt the characters and elements," André says. "It was a truly handcrafted process – the most manual project we've ever done at the studio.”
Through happy coincidence, the colours of the sea and golden hue of the wood mirror the colours of Corona's brand identity, preventing the connection from feeling forced or intrusive. The use of multiple layers of wood to create three-dimensional compositions allowed the use of sophisticated lighting effects.
“Because of those layers, we were able to shape the lighting: background light, frontal light, and so on,” André says “These layers were essential to compose the final lighting setup for the photographs. The lighting is a crucial part of the work because it helps define and enhance the carvings.”
The campaign extends to a handmade book that's still in development. The studio says this will be designed to look like a boat and will incorporate materials from maritime life, like canvas from boat sails, fishing net textures, and wood like that used to make oars. Pop-up elements will add to the tactile nature of the experience.
I've liked some of Coronas campaigns in the past. It's made ingeniously thrifty optical illusion ads using stock photos and even made clever adverts that don't show the product.
I love the handcrafted work on this initiative, and it comes at just the right time.
Perhaps as a reaction to the saturation of quick and soulless AI-generated content, there's been a bit of a flurry of unique campaigns that go in the opposite direction, highlighting and celebrating the long, painstaking process of creation. Check out the epic Britbox ad filmed in a single 14-hour take.
