Tío Rico
The value of taking risks with humor.
EXPLORE THE PROJECTCaracas / Film Direction · Script Writing
DIRECTOR’S NOTES / GALIT GARZON
There’s something special about working with Tío Rico.
It’s more than a brand. It’s part of Venezuela’s collective memory. So many of us grew up with it, which means approaching a brand like this creatively comes with a different kind of responsibility. You’re not starting from zero. There’s already an emotional relationship between the brand and the people who love it.
When we started thinking about this film, I knew humor had to be part of the answer.
When done well, humor has an incredible ability to close the distance between a brand and its audience. Advertising stops feeling like advertising. It becomes something people relate to, share, talk about and, hopefully, remember.
But humor also requires a certain amount of creative courage.
At a time when so much advertising chooses the safer route, building a more playful narrative, leaning into expressive characters and allowing a story to have a real personality always comes with some risk.
And I think that’s often where the most memorable work begins.
The value of taking risks with humor.
DIRECTOR’S NOTES / GALIT GARZON
As a director, one of the most interesting parts of this project was allowing the story to find its own rhythm and personality. You can prepare everything — write the script, build the characters, define the visual language — but once you’re on set, sometimes the film starts giving something back to you.
Unexpected moments appear. A performance takes a scene somewhere better. A small detail suddenly becomes part of the language of the piece.
Knowing when to recognize those moments, and when to make space for them, is part of directing too.
This film reminded me of something I try to protect in every project: the best ideas don’t always come from controlling every detail. Sometimes they appear when you create enough structure for something unexpected to happen.
Directing a campaign for a brand as loved as Tío Rico gave me the opportunity to explore exactly that — humor that feels familiar, expressive and deeply human, without losing what makes the brand feel like Tío Rico.
Because beyond strategy, aesthetics or even the campaign itself, what people tend to remember are the moments that made them feel something.
And sometimes, making them laugh is enough to make them remember.
The value of taking risks with humor.
Explore the film and selected frames.