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DishLATINO brings back El Chavo in new campaign with Eugenio Derbez
Claudia Smolansky| 23 de marzo de 2022
Derbez y El Chavo
Though the mystery of who will play the late Roberto Gomez Bolaños – whose stage name was Chespirito – in the upcoming TV series about him has not yet been revealed, the sight of Eugenio Derbez chatting with a resurrected El Chavo del Ocho in the new ad campaign Latino Como Tu (Latino Like You) by DishLATINO has sparked a lot of talk. During a virtual press conference, Derbez was accompanied by Alfredo Rodriguez, VP of the Latino Center of Excellence of DishLATINO, and Roberto Gomez Hernandez, producer and president of the Chespirito group and son of that famous actor once known for his role as El Chavo. Derbez joked that he won’t play the part of El Chavo in the TV series but rather that of Chilindrina. But what is certain is that in the DishLATINO spot he is seen miraculously speaking with a revived Gomez Bolaños, who had played the iconic El Chavo character of Latin American culture and who died back in 2014. “For me this has been a very special experience because it shows how El Chavo del Ocho (The Kid from the Eight) broke down the old stereotypes and so opened the way for today’s Latinos to win success in movies, politics, sports, science, business and many other areas. It’s something that fills me and DishLATINO with pride,” Derbez said. He added that when he was starting his career he got depressed when one of his first acting gigs flopped, but Roberto Gomez Bolaños sent him a letter of encouragement. “Don’t be depressed, keep on going, these things happen,” he wrote. For Derbez, that was an indication of Chespirito’s humanity. “For that reason, when DishLATINO explained to me the idea of the spot, I was on board from the start, because for me it was like a dream come true.” “The truth is it was a shock to see my dad in action years after he was no longer with us. Without any doubt it was the biggest jolt I’ve had in recent years – being able to hear him speak again,” said Gomez Hernandez about the commercial. “People see El Chavo while I see my dad speaking there. That’s absolutely priceless,” he added. Making this new ad campaign was a challenge that involved not only the DishLATINO team in Denver but also the Marca agency in Miami, which was in charge of the project. Rodriguez said “it was as if we could keep connected with our consumers, with our Hispanic community in a relevant way, but could also speak of the Latino pride our community feels thanks to the simple fact that we have contributed so much to this country, and that was the beginning of the story.” “It was a tremendous challenge. We were looking for innovation, something original, something that was both deep-seated and real, and along came this idea of uniting two icons: Eugenio Derbez, who is the spokesman for our brand, and on the other hand, the greatest Latin American icon of recent years, who was El Chavo,” said Alejandro Berbari, partner and executive creative director of Marca, and from that point they wrote the script that contained an imaginary chat that would take place if both icons could ever meet up with one another. The most complicated aspect of all was how to bring El Chavo back from the grave. First, an actor was cast who could imitate his movements and expressions perfectly, and the story was filmed under the direction of Matias Moltrasio. Then they had the collaboration of experts in the latest video technology known as Deepfake. Fifteen hours of videos were then produced and 15,000 takes showing the real El Chavo’s face from every possible angle. “All this material was digitized and by means of artificial intelligence (AI) software was combined to apply to the new actor’s face. More than 1,000 hours of work were needed to recreate his face and facial expressions to perfection. And so El Chavo was able to arrive in time for his get-together with Eugenio, and now millions of Latinos will be able to enjoy this fusion,” Berbari told a press conference.For Rodriguez of DishLATINO, the importance of this ad campaign was being able to put together so many elements like the latest technology, nostalgia for El Chavo, but above all Latino pride. “The fact that we use our (LATINO) surname, for want of a better word, to identify the product and service and the company we represent is very important. So the idea of Latino Like You reflects our identification with our audience,” he said.
