The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2024
Uber Eats Mexico hijacks Checo Perez's billboards by posing as his next ad
Beside billboards of F1 driver Sergio 'Checo' Perez endorsing anything, Uber Eats placed a matching ad: whatever Checo sells, the app delivers.
Uber Eats (Uber)
What it had to solve
In Mexico, Sergio 'Checo' Perez is everywhere — every street, corner and billboard — promoting products that Uber Eats also delivers. During the week of the Mexican Grand Prix, when his advertising was most visible, Uber Eats and Wieden+Kennedy Mexico wanted the app's range to be unmistakable.
How it works
In Mexico, Sergio 'Checo' Perez is everywhere: every street, every corner, every billboard, promoting products that Uber Eats can also deliver. The brand's challenge was to make its own range obvious inside that wall of celebrity endorsements.
The answer was to stop fighting Checo's ads and start joining them. During the week of the Mexican F1 Grand Prix, when Checo's advertising is at its most visible, Uber Eats placed one of its own ads beside each of his, replicating the same pose, elements and expressions.
The result was a hijack of Checo's own media: his endorsements read as Uber Eats ads, reinforcing that on Uber Eats you can get almost anything he sells. The placements ran across out-of-home, YouTube, Instagram and digital banners, and the work is archived in the D&AD awards archive.
Why it lands
- Checo's ubiquity was the media plan: the campaign borrowed placements his own ads already occupied, so it needed no extra reach.
- Mirroring pose, elements and expressions made each pairing read instantly, with no copy needed to explain the joke.
- Running in Grand Prix week guaranteed maximum Checo visibility, which made the Uber Eats contrast land at the strongest moment.
- The idea turned the app's range into the hero: if almost anything Checo sells is on Uber Eats, his entire endorsement wall becomes the catalogue.
What it did
During the week Checo's advertising was at its most visible, his endorsements were reframed as Uber Eats ads across out-of-home and digital media, making the app's catalogue the punchline of his ubiquity. The campaign is archived in the D&AD awards archive.
What you can take
A brand can borrow a celebrity's ubiquity instead of renting it: with the right pose and timing, the other advertiser's media becomes your canvas.
Since then
For Uber Eats Mexico, the week its celebrity competitor-for-attention was most visible became a running demonstration of the app's catalogue: wherever Checo's face appeared, an Uber Eats response appeared beside it. The campaign is archived in the D&AD awards archive as a case of hijacking a celebrity's own advertising rather than buying around it.
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