Jose Cuervo Brings Day of the Dead to Life with Calaverita Campaign

Purple Creative has created a through the line campaign for Jose Cuervo Especial limited edition bottles that brings the fun, joy and traditions of Day of the Dead to life.  

The creative agency based this year’s colourful campaign around the tradition of the ‘calaverita’, a short satirical rhyming poem written and shared amongst friends and family in Mexico around Day of the Dead. Like a ‘roast’, the cheeky poems often poke fun at life and love, perfectly capturing the spirit of the fiesta and mirroring the sociability of drinking Jose Cuervo with loved ones.  

“Day of the Dead is one of Mexico’s oldest and most iconic festivals – where families honour and celebrate their deceased relatives by getting together with delicious food, great tequila and fiesta into the night! There’s a misconception that it’s just ‘Mexican Halloween’ – but it’s so much more than that. It’s meaningful, life-giving, joyful and has wonderful traditions attached to it, like the calaverita!” said Aileen Cotter, global brand manager, Jose Cuervo. 

As the world’s number one tequila brand, Jose Cuervo has been leading the Day of the Dead celebrations for decades. Every year, the brand releases two collectable limited edition bottles, on for blanco and one for reposado, illustrated by a Mexican artist. This year, illustrator El Mictlart, has brought the bottles to life in a bold and colourful way, each design surrounded by a fun calverita poem, written specifically for the campaign. 

Purple’s creative concept focused on exploring and leveraging the calaverita in lots of fun and memorable ways to excite and engage the tequila-loving target audience – as well as inspiring global markets to stretch the idea.   

“This year was all about having fun with the calaverita theme, teaming up with our wordsmiths and really playing with the messaging. Visually, we brought the concept to life by adding richness to the illustration – and using the papel picado style bunting to hold all the iconic calaverita verses, whether that’s cheeky poems or on-trade bar promotions that get people to write their own calaverita for a margarita!” said Gwyn Edwards, creative director, Purple Creative. 

The campaign included traditional key visuals and OOH media but really took on a life of its own in dynamic animations on social platforms, expressive GIFs, as a calvarita generator that writes ‘personal’ poems for people and fun on and off-trade calaverita activations. 

“The campaign has really inspired our markets and is being used in so many creative and fun ways. I hope it gets more people to understand and appreciate Day of the Dead and encourages them to celebrate the ultimate afterparty!” said Aileen Cotter, global brand manager. 

The calaverita Day of the Dead 2024 campaign was packaged in a comprehensive toolkit for markets to use and is now live across the world.