The archive · Marketing & Growth · Marketing decision · 2022
Mercado Livre’s rappers shout out Black-owned shops instead of Gucci and Dior
Two of Brazil’s biggest rap stars spent their brand mentions on small Black-owned sellers instead of Gucci and Dior, in a song made for Mercado Livre.
Mercado Livre
What it had to solve
73% of hip hop songs mention a brand, giving those labels huge visibility and earned media at no cost — yet rap and hip hop were born in the Black community while the brands being named are mostly owned by white people. Mercado Livre, Latin America’s biggest ecommerce, wanted to change who benefits from that pattern.
How it works
73% of hip hop songs mention a brand, which gives those brands huge visibility and earned media at no cost. But although rap and hip hop were born in the Black community, many of the brands rappers name are owned by white people.
For Black History Month, Mercado Livre, the biggest ecommerce in Latin America, got together with two of Brazil’s biggest rap stars to buck that pattern. They created a song and music video in which the usual mentions of Gucci, Dior and Balenciaga were replaced by small local brands owned by Black entrepreneurs.
The result was a piece of popular culture that promoted Black-owned businesses inside the very format that had been enriching other brands for free. The work is filed in the D&AD awards archive under Commerce.
Why it lands
- Rap’s brand mentions are proven free media, so placing Black-owned businesses inside the song transfers an existing engine of visibility instead of inventing a new one.
- Using two of Brazil’s biggest rap stars means the message travels on music’s own credibility rather than as a corporate ad.
- The swap is legible: listeners who expected luxury names hear local Black entrepreneurs and notice exactly what changed.
What it did
The song handed small Black-owned local brands the kind of mention rap normally reserves for global luxury labels — visibility and earned media the businesses did not pay for — and bucked a pattern that had skipped them. The work is filed in the D&AD awards archive under Commerce.
What you can take
An industry pattern that favours the powerful can be reversed in plain sight: borrow the mechanism that enriches others — rappers’ brand mentions — and point it at the community the culture came from.
Since then
The campaign ran for Black History Month with Brazil’s biggest rap stars putting small Black-owned marketplace brands in their lyrics and video. The D&AD awards archive files the work under Commerce, and it stands as a documented example of an ecommerce brand using its marketing budget to point hip hop’s free brand economy at the community the genre came from.
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