From the curse of interruption to the magic of entertainment, how cinema became the new advertising: "We must avoid making long commercials."

They say F1 is the most expensive sports ad ever filmed. Without going any further than the promotional images, it's clear that it doesn't end there. On the collar of the jacket, Pirelli; on the chest, Tommy Hilfiger and IWC; on the shoulder, OMP; from top to bottom on the left arm, Geico and MSC. Brad Pitt is an advertisement in himself for much more than anything related to motoring . And the best part is that, surely, you hadn't stopped to think about it before reading these lines. F1 is, surely, the latest link in the chain of product placement that began in our collective imagination with the 90s breakfast tables of Family Doctor .

Cinema needs the money that brands have, and brands need the cultural penetration of cinema. From the symbiosis of both worlds, a new audiovisual genre has emerged, giving rise to experiences like the one we just experienced, or even more striking. Welcome to the era of invisible advertising. Or almost.

The latest major social phenomenon surrounding a film was living proof that something is changing very quickly. For two years, creative agencies have been repeating the same request, all over the world: "Make me a Barbie . " What was Greta Gerwig's film but a spectacular two-hour commercial ? And yet, what for the common people marked a before and after in how a brand sold its product, in the advertising world it was simply a success story, perhaps the most successful—not in vain, Mattel boosted its sales by more than €1.8 billion—perhaps the most visible example of an innovative form of camouflaged communication that brands have adopted for the sake of survival: in the fight for attention, the one who controls the message wins .

" Barbie has had a huge impact on us, but the symbiosis between film and brands goes back a long way," explains Miguel Vara , head of Content Studios at the McCann agency in Spain. His mission is precisely to integrate brands with social media content without making it too obvious. "Possibly, the creator of this business model was Walt Disney himself , who based his activity on film and entertainment, so that films and their characters were the growth engine for his other monetization channels, such as theme parks or toys and children's products."

Vara is no stranger to the benefits of film. Not surprisingly, before assuming his current position, he worked at LEGO, which in the last 15 years has produced five films starring its small, articulated characters. "That turned the company around," the advertising executive recalls. "Once you become aware of the cultural packaging of entertainment, it radically changes the company's DNA. Suddenly, everyone understands that the brand is a cultural entity beyond the sale , in this case, of toys." And it clearly works: in 2015, a year after the release of The Lego Movie, the Danish firm overtook Mattel as the world's leading toy company.

"Once you become aware of the cultural packaging of entertainment, it radically changes the DNA of the company."

Miguel Vara, Head of Content Studios at McCann

In an audiovisual world where no one is anyone without their own documentary, why resort to imagined stories when you can tell your own legacy? "Fiction allows for creative licenses that serve the spectacle and add more emotion to the final product, so you can open up to new audiences and, above all, offer a cultural product that people are willing to pay for," he explains. That maxim guided haute couture giant Yves Saint Laurent when he created his own production company, Saint Laurent Productions , in 2023. If Barbie broke the mold by producing her own film about her own star doll, the French brand went a step further by producing films... in which its brand did not appear .

Does The Strange Way of Life , Almodóvar's western starring Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke, ring a bell? Does Emilia Pérez , surely the most controversial title of the last few Oscars, ring a bell? And Parthenope , that beautiful metaphor for desire signed by Sorrentino?

Surprise: they are all the work of Saint Laurent Productions.

"A film from 10 or 30 years ago remains relevant if it's good. In some ways, cinema can have more impact than a good seasonal collection. For me, starting out in film was a natural evolution into a more general and popular creative field," says Anthony Vaccarerello , creative director of Yves Saint Laurent, in statements collected by EL MUNDO by his public relations department. "It may open the market to new consumers, but that's not my goal. I'm looking for a new way to enhance the Saint Laurent name . Films last, they stay with us, and we take them wherever we go."

Although the brand itself isn't present in his films, the costumes are all by Yves Saint Laurent. "These creations have been a good exercise in empathy. Developing a character who has nothing to do with me and whom I didn't choose is a very enriching collaboration," says Vaccarello, who only chooses controversial art projects "in a good way": "It's good to confront art forms that invite reflection."

"Movies last, they stay with us, and we take them wherever we go. They have more impact than a collection."

Anthony Vaccarerello, creative director of Yves Saint Laurent

Spain is no stranger to this symbiosis between cinema and advertising. "We receive more than 6,000 advertising impacts a day , we have increasingly more options to choose what we want to watch in our free time, and in this battle for viewers' dwindling attention, we need to find new connection models," explains Alfonso García Valenzuela , general manager of IPG Mediabrands Entertainment, the largest testing laboratory on the topic at hand. "The paradigm shift stems from a rather simple precept: if we can't interrupt people's entertainment, let's become their entertainment."

On this path, which, in his words, frees him from "the curse of interrupting the magic of entertainment," the key is to abandon the codes of advertising and immerse himself fully in the expertise of audiovisual fiction. In short, "we must avoid making long commercials." Valenzuela's journey in entertainment began five years ago with OSO, Historia de un Icono , a documentary commemorating the centenary of the jewelry brand Tous, which arrived at a time of intense pro-independence harassment. "It served to reposition Tous in terms of sales and image and showed that content can get people to buy more," he recalls.

The journey continued in 2022 with a reality show with Turismo de Canarias produced by Rakuten TV and hosted by Pilar Rubio, which served as a testing ground for going further. " Discovering Canary Islands confirmed the model we were looking for, which I call a win-win-win : the brand wins, having a 340-minute ad that showcases all the aspects it wants to show; the audience wins, because it was the first white, family-friendly reality show ; and the platform also wins, because it gets its own co-financed and successful content: it was renewed for a second season and became the most-watched show on Rakuten TV to date," says García Valenzuela.

"The paradigm shift stems from a rather simple precept: if we can't interrupt people's entertainment, let's become their entertainment."

Alfonso García Valenzuela, CEO of IPG Mediabrands Entertainment

The ultimate goal of their journey is an LGBT romantic comedy, also sponsored by the Canary Islands and soon to premiere at the most prestigious festivals. A Una Isla De Ti is the first fiction film created directly by a brand in Spain. Something tells us it won't be the last.

If there's one filmmaker in our country who has understood the possibilities of creative collaboration with brands, it's Javier Fesser . Not surprisingly, his production company, Pendelton Films, was born out of the advertising agency Línea Films in the early 1990s, when he and his partner, Luis Manso , gave in to their own cinematic ambitions and began to reap successes such as El Milagro de P. Tinto , La gran aventura de Mortadelo y Filemón , and, of course, the Campeones saga. It's this latest title that has put the final twist on the matter at hand: it didn't just integrate the kind of advertising we've called invisible; it became a brand in itself that began to operate in its own right.

"It only happens with films that are fortunate enough to become phenomena, and a phenomenon is, by definition, exceptional," clarifies Manso, the mastermind behind the duo's production. " Campeones was the most-watched film of the year and won the Goya for Best Film, but it also did so with a tender, funny, slightly mischievous, and family-friendly story that doesn't generate rejection." This was fertile ground for ONCE to call and make the film's protagonists the face of its campaigns, but also for the sequel, Campeonex , to host its final competition at the Caser Arena and pit its athletes-turned-gamers against the Movistar Riders team.

"The only way for a film to become a brand is with phenomena like Champions , who are also white."

Luis Manso, partner of Javier Fesser at Pendelton Films

"Fesser is very creative, and he came up with a very nice ending, but it was over budget, either undermining my partner's concerns, or looking for more money, " the producer claims. They did have a very clear line of thought: "We had to think together, unite the creative processes. We couldn't allow the sponsorship to be noticeable; it had to have a natural presence that fit with the story, because otherwise, the viewer would feel like they were being screwed."

It wasn't the first time Manso had conceived a collaboration of this kind, based on humor and naturalness. Remember those Mortadelo and Filemón vs. Jimmy the Horny booths that spit out money instead of swallowing it due to a failed invention by Professor Bacterio? They were emblazoned with a purple Oño logo. Guess which defunct telephone company paid for the party?