The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2022–2023
La Moderna turns alphabet soup into sign-language pasta to teach Mexican Sign Language
A new mould casts alphabet pasta as Mexican Sign Language hand signs, so the country's childhood soup becomes a sign-language lesson.
Pasta La Moderna (Grupo La Moderna)
What it had to solve
Alphabet soup is a Mexican childhood staple, but its letters speak only to people who can hear. On Mexico's National Sign Language Day, Pasta La Moderna wanted the everyday product itself to introduce Mexicans to Lengua de Señas Mexicana (Mexican Sign Language).
How it works
Alphabet soup is a Mexican childhood staple: letters floating in broth are how many kids first meet their alphabet. But those letters speak only to people who can hear, leaving deaf Mexicans outside a tradition everyone else shares.
Pasta La Moderna's answer was to change the alphabet itself. A new special mould shaped the pasta as hand signs from Lengua de Señas Mexicana (LSM), so a limited-edition soup launched on National Sign Language Day turned a familiar meal into an inclusive experience: a sign soup that invited Mexicans to begin learning sign language.
The idea made eating the lesson rather than accompanying it. The soup could sit on the same shelves, be cooked in the same pot and be shared at the same table as the original, carrying the sign-language alphabet into homes that had never been taught it.
The work was recognised by D&AD and later outgrew the activation: a year after the campaign, La Moderna began selling the sign-language pasta as a regular supermarket product, making the inclusive format the product rather than a one-off stunt.
Why it lands
- It changed the product's own grammar instead of adding a message about inclusion, so the lesson was inseparable from the meal.
- Alphabet soup is a shared childhood ritual in Mexico — replacing letters with sign-language hands makes deaf culture part of a tradition everyone already has.
- The special mould made the idea concrete and defensible: once the pasta itself is the sign, the campaign cannot be dismissed as a poster or a hashtag.
- Launching on the National Sign Language Day gave a grocery item a news hook and a reason for Mexicans to try an alphabet they had never been taught.
What it did
The special edition gave a hearing childhood staple a deaf audience: the soup itself became the invitation to learn Mexican Sign Language. The idea outlived the campaign — the following year La Moderna launched the sign-language pasta as a real product on supermarket shelves — and the work is preserved in D&AD's awards archive.
What you can take
If a product's format excludes people, don't bolt on an awareness campaign — change the product's own grammar so the excluded audience is who it speaks to.
Since then
The campaign drew D&AD shortlist recognition in 2023 and later honours on the Círculo, Clio, FIAP, One Show and El Ojo circuits, per the agency's case page. More durably, La Moderna productised the idea: the agency and Mexican business press reported the sign-language pasta reaching supermarket shelves in 2023, turning a purpose campaign into a regular product line.
Sources
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card