Coca-Cola's 'Shades of Red' restores faded awnings of Mexico's corner stores

Mexico's tienditas — family-run corner stores — carry Coca-Cola's red awning as a badge of neighbourhood identity and generate nearly half of the brand's sales in the market, yet years of sun had left thousands of awnings faded and their shops looking neglected. Coca-Cola wanted a gesture of gratitude to the channel that built it.

Replace faded Coca-Cola awnings on thousands of Mexican corner stores — turning worn shopfronts into a nationwide tribute and the year's biggest OOH network.

Led by DAVID Madrid through WPP Open X, Coca-Cola replaced the worn awnings of thousands of tienditas and taquerías with fresh red ones at no cost to the owners, then reused the retired fabric in billboards and social content so the old material told the story. A hero film honoured the shopkeepers, with support from Ogilvy PR, Stink and Pickle Music.

The restored awnings formed a decentralised OOH network: 13,200 renewed with plans toward 900,000 stores and US$12.4M committed, and brand-health metrics began recovering within six weeks of launch. The campaign won a Gold Lion and two Bronze Lions at Cannes 2025, plus a Bronze in LIA 2025 Integration.

For generations the tiendita — Mexico's family-run corner store — has worn a red Coca-Cola awning as its badge, signalling cold drinks and community inside. By 2025, years of sun had faded thousands of those awnings to pale pinks and browns, ageing stores that generate nearly half of Coca-Cola's sales in Mexico. DAVID Madrid's 'Shades of Red' answered with an act of upkeep that read as love: replace the awnings, free of charge, for the shopkeepers.

Executed through WPP Open X with Ogilvy PR, Stink and Pickle Music, the campaign made the awning itself the media. Fresh red awnings went up on thousands of tienditas and taquerías, while the faded fabric removed from the shops was recycled into billboards and social content — the sun-bleached shades becoming the campaign's palette. A hero film paid tribute to the people behind the counters, and the work spoke in décimas, a poetic form rooted in Mexican oral tradition.

The result was a decentralised out-of-home network across the country: 13,200 awnings renewed, with plans to reach 900,000 stores backed by a US$12.4M investment, and brand-health metrics beginning to recover within six weeks of launch. Cannes Lions 2025 gave the work a Gold Lion and two Bronze Lions, and LIA 2025 added a Bronze in Integration; LBB's editors later named it one of the favourite Latin American ads of the year.

It solved a real business problem with a real favour: the awnings were worn out anyway, so the campaign's money went on something shopkeepers actually needed, earning goodwill no billboard could buy.

The storefront became the medium: thousands of restored awnings spread Coca-Cola's red across every neighbourhood at zero placement cost, each carrying a loyalty story rather than an ad message.

Nothing was thrown away: the faded awnings were recycled into further placements, so even the campaign's waste material reinforced the tribute and kept the visual idea coherent.

It honoured the channel that built the brand: celebrating tienditas thanked the small businesses behind nearly half of Coca-Cola's Mexican sales, aligning commercial interest with cultural gratitude.

Turn an operational chore into a tribute: replacing faded awnings became Coca-Cola's biggest campaign because it honoured the shopkeepers who sell the brand and let storefronts do the advertising.

Shades of Red ran through 2025 as one of Coca-Cola's most awarded Latin American campaigns, collecting a Cannes Outdoor Gold with two Bronze Lions and a 2025 LIA Integration Bronze, and closing the year on LBB's list of favourite Latin American ads. The program's scale — thousands of awnings installed and an ambition to reach 900,000 stores — turned a one-off tribute into an ongoing renewal of the traditional trade channel, and brand-health metrics in Mexico began recovering within six weeks of the launch.