Oi Brazil!

 Last week, I attended a great Adweek panel presented by advertising agency, StrawberryFrog, focusing on Brazil and why it’s changing the world of Advertisement. As people walked into the conference hall, attendees were drawn in with Brazilian beats and the smooth rhythms of Samba. Alexandre Peralta of StrawberryFrog Brazil and Suzana Apelbaum, ECD of StrawberryFrog introduced the question that everyone seems to be wondering with Brazil’s recent economic boom and spread of innovation, “What’s in the water of Brazil?” What are people drinking that leads to so much recent success and last year’s famous Economist cover “Brazil Takes Off”?

Peralta and Apelbaum explain that we should not only look at the economical factors that are influencing Brazil’s creativity, but what we really should pay attention to is Brazil’s rich culture of design, architecture and street art- they are the true sources of inspiration in the Brazilian ad world! They describe inspiration that roots from designer Sergio Rodrigues’s “Chifruda” chair and Oscar Niamaya’s world famous architecture. But more than architecture and design, what truly describes the Brazilian way of thinking and spreading ideas is street art. Os Gêmeos, graffiti artists + identical twin brothers, are a perfect example of artists who are infusing Brazilian folklore, social/political commentary and the hip hop graffiti style to express themselves.

“We Brazilians are humorous, spontaneous people who are used to dealing with limits, such as budgets… we paint on walls, we use limits as a way of challenging ourselves… and that is what’s influencing our ad world”  -Suzana Apelbaum 

Want to drink the Brazilian “Água”? Start your journey through Sergio Rodrigues and Os Gêmeos’s vision!