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When hundreds of thousands of protesters chanted Vem pra rua, vem! (“Come to the street, come!”) across Brazilian cities in June, executives at Fiat probably could not believe their ears.
The slogan had been the centrepiece of the Italian carmaker’s advertising campaign, launched only the month before, part of its most expensive marketing project in the Latin American country this year.
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While the phrase itself has been used during political movements in the past in Brazil, for the crowds of mainly young protesters who hit the country’s streets this year it was simply recognised as “that slogan from the Fiat ad”.
Fiat was not the only company to have inadvertently become an unofficial sponsor of the biggest protests in Brazil in more than two decades.
Another favourite slogan among demonstrators was O gigante acordou (“The giant woke up”), made popular by a 2011 Johnnie Walker commercial.
But has the unexpected free advertising been worth it for Fiat and UK-based Diageo, owner of the Johnnie Walker whisky brand?
Three months after mass protests broke out, drawing as many as 1m demonstrators at their peak, the movement has lost much of its original support.
While the initial protests began as demonstrations over issues such as public transport and corruption, the movement gradually gained more sinister characteristics. Vandals, political factions, the so-called Black Bloc masked anarchist group and even allegedly undercover police officers infiltrated the protests, scaring away many other demonstrators.
So, for Fiat and Diageo, their association with the movement has become even more dangerous.
Marcello Queiroz, editor-in-chief of Jornal Propmark, a Brazilian advertising and marketing magazine, says that the risks of being associated with the protests always outweighed the potential benefits.
This is especially true for Fiat, says Mr Queiroz, as their slogan could be seen as a direct call to action.
“In this sense, Johnnie Walker is at an advantage because there is no risk its slogan will be associated with the wave of violence; it is not inciting people to come to the streets but just to ‘wake up’,” he says.

Johnnie Walker’s television commercial shows Rio de Janeiro’s iconic landscape morphing into a giant who wakes up and starts walking – a play on the depiction of Brazil in the national anthem as a giant “resting eternally”. “The giant is no longer asleep – keep walking, Brazil!” is the advertisement’s tag line.
The commercial was launched in 2011 and instantly gained popularity, capturing a period of widespread optimism in the country after the economy’s impressive 7.5 per cent growth in 2010.
During the demonstrations, the slogan came to represent a form of political awakening and greater vigilance by the people of their often corrupt leaders.
Fiat’s slogan also comes from a TV commercial – this time showing fans taking to the streets to celebrate the national football team’s victory. The advert was aired just before Brazil kicked off the Confederations Cup, the warm-up for the football World Cup next year. The lyrics of the catchy song go: “Come to the street, because the street is the biggest football stand in Brazil”.
The lines resonated with Brazil’s protesters, many of whom had never taken part in activist movements before, as an accessible and fun way to gain support for their various causes.
Fiat took the commercial off the air at the end of June, even though the Confederations Cup was still in progress. The company said it had always planned to withdraw the commercial at the time, but gave few details about when, or if, its Vem pra rua slogan would return.
“The campaign’s focus is solely and exclusively the joy and passion of football,” the carmaker said.
While Fiat is unlikely to use the slogan again, Diageo may also find it difficult to revive its O gigante acordou commercial for fear of associating itself to a movement, which has occasionally turned violent and already led to several fatalities, says Mr Queiroz.
Nevertheless, Fiat and Johnnie Walker’s commercials should still serve as examples of successful marketing strategies in the country – even if their downfall was ultimately being too successful, say advertising executives.
Fiat’s campaign was widely seen as a clever way of cashing in on Brazil’s football mega-events without paying Fifa, the tournament’s organising body, to be an official sponsor.
Many have praised Diageo’s Johnnie Walker commercial for its ability to “Brazilianise” a foreign product – a challenge for consumer goods companies attempting to break into the market.
Leandro Leal, a freelance copywriter in São Paulo, says: “When international companies come to Brazil, they often impose their culture and this happens a lot in advertising.
“An international campaign is often simply adjusted for the local market,” he says.
“However, when a genuinely local campaign is created for a foreign product, as in the case of Johnnie Walker, I think people feel they have been recognised and it leaves them with an affinity with the brand.”