On the morning of January 8, 2023, Brazil watched in shock as scenes on TV showed a group of far-right protesters, dissatisfied with the election results, invading the National Congress, vandalizing public property, and threatening a military coup. The images went viral. In the most famous of them, a hooded man raised the original Brazilian Federal Constitution as a trophy, stolen from the presidential office. The most important document of the nation, responsible for safeguarding its freedom and democracy.

Mercado Livre is the country's largest e-commerce company, with progress and freedom as its core values. It decided to make its position clear, even when all other brands preferred to remain silent.

A few hours after the episode that shocked the country, Mercado Livre decided to take a bombastic stand: it launched a flash promotion that gave 99% off on all existing editions of the federal constitution available in its inventory. And so, by making the book that anti-democratic acts attempted to destroy more accessible, no Brazilian would ever forget the value of democracy again.

The strategy of control tone and narrative through PR focused on 3 main objectives:

1) emphasize positioning in defense of democracy and against violence;

2) Diminish risk of partisan association;

3) Eliminate perception of opportunistic premise.

In the morning after the events that lasted all night, Mercado Livre decided to take a stand about the invasion of the Brazilian congress. In a matter of hours, we developed a promotion that would give a 99% discount on the units of the federal constitution for sale on the platform. The entire logistics operation was done within hours. One post was shared on the brand's social media (Instagram and Twitter) and one print ad, a full page in one of the country's main newspapers, was published.

With just 1 social media post and 1 print ad, we sold out the entire stock of the company's books in just 4 hours.

There were over 15k scans of the QR code in the print ad in one day and over 110k total visits to the ad on the platform.

The campaign resulted in the largest book sale in Mercado Livre's 25-year history, making the Constitution the best-selling book in the country that week.

It was also the biggest peak of sales for federal constitutions in the history of the country, in a short period of time.

The post became the most commented post in the brand's history.

The idea became news, reaching headlines around the world.

- $5.5 MM EARNED MEDIA

- 1.5 BILLION IMPRESSIONS