The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2025
Gavião Kyikatejê turns a slur on national TV into its first sponsorship
A top coach says his team cannot be 'a team of Indians'; Brazil's first Indigenous professional club answers with a film and wins its first sponsorship.
Gavião Kyikatejê Football Club · Area 23
What it had to solve
Gavião Kyikatejê FC, founded in 2009 in the Amazon, met every professional requirement of the Brazilian Football Confederation and fielded an all-Indigenous squad, yet had never attracted a single formal sponsor. Then Brazil's most decorated coach told national television that his side could not be 'a team of Indians', using an expression that is normalized but offensive, and the remark became national news.
How it works
Gavião Kyikatejê FC was founded in 2009 in the Brazilian Amazon. It met every professional requirement set by the Brazilian Football Confederation and its players were all Indigenous, yet the club had never received formal sponsorship — until a national television moment changed the conversation.
Brazil's most decorated coach told a live audience his team could not be 'a team of Indians', using an expression that is common but offensive. The remark made headlines and drew a public apology, and it exposed how little the country's public discourse understands its Indigenous peoples.
In response, a volunteer collective of Brazilian advertising creatives — Victor Toyofuku of Area 23, Yohanna Ioshua of WMcCann and Henrique Louzada of Ogilvy Amsterdam, joined by producers and directors from Balma Films — launched a campaign on Brazil's National Indigenous Resistance Day. A 16mm documentary shot in the Amazon with community members and no actors was combined with hand-painted animation by Dirty Work, drawing on Kyikatejê legends and symbols and approved by chief Zeca Gavião.
The film invited brands to sponsor the club and generated enough attention that Gavião Kyikatejê went from no sponsorship to around R$500,000 a year — enough, by the campaign's account, to support seven future seasons. The work took Gold and Silver in the Entertainment Lions for Sport category at Cannes Lions 2025 and was archived in the D&AD awards.
Why it lands
- The club's record spoke before the campaign did: an all-Indigenous professional team with CBF credentials had never found a sponsor, which made the lack of support the story.
- A slur heard by the whole country gave the campaign a news moment no advertising budget could buy, and an apology left the subject open for response.
- Indigenous people told and approved their own story, in a documentary with community members instead of actors, so the film carried authority brands could not dismiss.
- Hand-painted animation of Kyikatejê legends let the campaign show the culture behind the team rather than reduce it to a cause.
What it did
The film and the local press it generated helped the club move from zero sponsorship to around R$500,000 a year — enough, by the campaign's account, to support the team for its next seven seasons. The work won Gold and Silver Lions in the Entertainment Lions for Sport category at Cannes Lions 2025 and was archived in the D&AD awards.
What you can take
When the insult is a whole society's prejudice, let the people it targets answer in their own voice; a story told with their approval can turn a moment of shame into a bankable partnership.
Since then
The campaign moved the club from zero sponsorship to contracts worth about R$500,000 a year, which the creative team says is enough to sustain seven future seasons. It won Gold and Silver Lions in Entertainment for Sport at Cannes Lions 2025 and earned a place in the D&AD awards archive, and coverage of the work repeatedly framed the club not as a charity case but as a professional team Brazil had overlooked. The club itself continued as the proof point: with sponsorship in place, its structure and its players' conditions could finally be built up.
Sources
- Gavião Kyikatejê Fooball Club — D&AD Awards archive
- Creative Collective Joins Forces for Campaign to Secure Sponsorship for Gaviao Kyikateje Football Club
- Cannes Lions Winner — Redefining Representation in Brazilian Football
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