• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, August 9, 2022

In an effort to preserve the culinary – as well as the advertising – heritage of Mexico City, WPP’s Grey unit teamed with TimeOut Mexico to develop a solution for Chilangos, or local street food vendors, who were forced to remove their colorful signage from their trucks and/or stalls by a new municipal ordinance.

When the mayor of Mexico City’s Cuauhtémoc district ordered the removal of the colorful folk art signs in May and required they be replaced by generic signs promoting the municipality, Grey’s creative team had the insight that the law did not prohibit magnetic signs that could be removed and replaced to get around the regulation.

“The idea consisted in working hand-in-hand with classic master sign makers, who were also economically affected by the mayor's decision, to re-create the iconic graphics of the stalls that had been removed, but this time on large magnets that can be placed and removed every day on the facades of the stalls and given free of charge to the juice, cake, taco or newspaper vendors,” the agency said in a statement describing the campaign, adding, “The signs not only advertise the offer of thousands of street stalls but also dress the streets of Mexico with identity and ingenuity. This iconic and diverse expression of popular art is a cultural heritage and therefore its defense is present.”

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