The archive · PR & Stunts · Marketing decision · 2024–2026
Atlético's fake legend Marino Uriel made fans feel Alzheimer's; tribute jersey sold out
Atlético, AFEAM and Havas planted a fake 1970s star across Wikipedia and archives so fans felt Alzheimer's — 68M reached, €145M earned media.
Atlético de Madrid · AFEAM · Havas Creative Spain
What it had to solve
For World Alzheimer's Day, Atlético de Madrid and the AFEAM association wanted to go beyond informing people and make thousands of fans feel what Alzheimer's patients experience. The club's identity is built on devotion to its history — for its community, forgetting a club legend is almost unthinkable.
How it works
On World Alzheimer's Day 2024, Atlético de Madrid wanted more than an awareness campaign: through its partnership with the Alzheimer's association AFEAM and agency Havas Creative Spain, the club set out to make fans experience a small part of the disorientation the disease causes. For a community whose identity rests on devotion to club history — the motto 'Never stop believing' — forgetting a legend is almost unthinkable, and that emotional tension became the strategy.
Havas invented Marino Uriel, a fictional Atlético legend from the 1970s, and spent months integrating him into the club's reality: AI-generated photos, fabricated statistics and archives, invented press coverage, social media activity, even Wikipedia and Transfermarkt entries, plus a documentary in which club legends and journalists reminisced about his career. His story was seeded subtly across media and fan communities until the club announced a tribute in his honour, covered by the press and live-streamed to fans.
The emotional peak was the reveal: fans, baffled and convinced they should remember Marino, learned he had never existed. Without any media investment, the campaign reached over 68 million people and generated €145 million in earned media value, tens of thousands watched the live tribute, and the Marino Uriel jersey sold out within hours as a fundraiser while AFEAM donations rose 2,500%. The jersey was later added to the club's museum, making the fictional legend a permanent symbol of the fight against Alzheimer's.
Why it lands
- The fictional legend weaponized the club's deepest value — fans never forget their legends — so forgetting Marino felt like a personal symptom of the disease.
- Months of seeding across Wikipedia, Transfermarkt, press and a documentary made the fiction believable, so the reveal hit at maximum conviction.
- Staging the tribute live made the confusion collective: the whole fan community experienced the disorientation at the same moment and shared it.
- The reveal flipped seamlessly into a saleable jersey, converting emotion into donations that rose 2,500% for AFEAM.
- The campaign chose experience over information — it staged the symptom of memory loss instead of explaining the disease.
What it did
With zero media investment the campaign reached more than 68 million people and generated €145 million in earned media value across Europe, Latin America, North America and Asia. Tens of thousands watched the live tribute, the official Marino Uriel jersey launched as a fundraiser sold out within hours, and donations to AFEAM rose 2,500%; the jersey later joined the club's museum.
What you can take
Make an audience feel an invisible condition by staging its symptoms inside something they love — the emotional jolt of the reveal carries the message.
Since then
Marino Uriel became more than a stunt: the club kept the jersey in its official museum as a lasting symbol of Alzheimer's awareness, and the campaign collected creative industry recognition, including a 2025 Silver from the London International Awards in Creativity in PR and a bronze at Spain's Premios Nacionales de Creatividad 2025 for the campaign developed with Havas Creative and AFEAM.
Sources
- Silver Creativity in PR — 'Marino Uriel. The (un)forgettable Legend' (LIA winner case)
- El Atlético, galardonado en los Premios Nacionales de Creatividad 2025
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