One sunny October afternoon, Rodrigo Leão, a multi-talented-being-that-I'm-envious-of
(successful advertising man + successful musician + successful writer), asked me to collaborate
on the first campaign for a brand new client in his brand new agency, Casa Darwin.
As if creating the first campaign for a newborn agency isn’t enough pressure, his client
was Melissa shoes, one of the coolest and most interesting brazilian brands in recent years.
And to triple that pressure, Paty, my wife, is a huge fan of Melissa.
For those who don't know, Melissa is a line of fun, sleek vinyl shoes, made by one of Brazil's
largest companies, Grendene. A fashion forward product, targeted to women of all ages
and admired worldwide.
Our challenge was to deliver, in less than 2 months, an interesting sequence of images
based on their 2008 winter collection concept “The Melissa Travels”, their first step towards
the international launch of “Plastic Dreams”, the new creative strategy platform.
We chose three classic travel stories - "The Gulliver Travels", "Marco Polo Travels" and "The Conquest of the West"- and did a surrealistic approach on them,
calling the german-japanese
duo Mi-Zo to help us bring those concepts to life.
All of it in a 12-hour difference time frame:
São Paulo, Los Angeles and Tokyo.
Besides celebrating Melissa’s fun DNA and new positioning, the campaign was very successful
in sales numbers, also receiving accolades from fashion blogs and Melissa’s fans all over the web.
But more important: Paty likes it too.
CD/CW: Rodrigo Leão
AGENCY: Casa Darwin
Year: 2008
