Hitler
Folha de S.Paulo1987
Hitler is a 1987 60-second television commercial for Folha de S.Paulo, created by W/GGK São Paulo (later W/Brasil).
The line
É possível contar um monte de mentiras dizendo só a verdade.
Why it works
A single black dot appears on screen, then dozens, then hundreds, slowly assembling a face while Ferreira Martins' measured voiceover lists the economic and social gains a leader delivered in his first years in power. The face is Adolf Hitler's. Then the payoff: "É possível contar um monte de mentiras dizendo só a verdade" (you can tell a pack of lies telling only the truth), and the sign-off that Folha is the paper most bought and never sold. Made in late 1987 by W/GGK, with Washington Olivetto directing creative, Nizan Guanaes writing, Gabriel Zellmeister on art direction and Andrés Bukowinski behind the camera, it is studied as the model for selling journalistic integrity by demonstrating the danger a newspaper guards against rather than claiming virtue. It won a Gold Lion at Cannes in 1988; Shots magazine later named it among 40 finalists for best commercial of the 20th century, and Bernice Kanner's 1999 book The 100 Best TV Commercials included it, one of only two Brazilian films chosen.
Techniques
- Shock and provocation Dots slowly assemble a face while a voiceover praises a leader's achievements, then reveal it as Hitler's, a deliberately disturbing payoff.
- Ethos Sells the newspaper's integrity by exposing the danger it guards against, rather than claiming virtue for itself.
- Demonstration Viewers are led by true facts to a false impression, proving on screen that you can lie while telling only the truth.
Sources · 3
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