When most brands step into the gaming world, they come armed with sponsorship deals, esports teams, and digital swag. Movistar Telecom? They came with a cinematic gut-punch.
“This is Not a Game” was not your standard awareness PSA. The campaign took on one of Mexico’s most chilling realities – the recruitment of minors by drug cartels – and exposed how it had seeped into the gaming ecosystem.
For years, organized crime in Mexico has hunted for young recruits in vulnerable spaces. Now, with 81.4% of gamers glued to mobile screens, cartels have found an easy backdoor: online gaming chats.
Movistar – the second-largest telecom in Latin America – decided to fight back using the same immersive language that makes games so addictive. Instead of wagging a parental finger, they dropped gamers into a hyper-realistic, live-action “video game” narrative.
The protagonist? A teenager lured by flattery about his in-game shooting skills. The endgame? Forced recruitment into a criminal network – no respawns, no extra lives.
The Creative Play
The execution was as ambitious as the message. Forget conventional directing – this was “gameatography.”
Characters moved with precise, NPC-like mechanics, environments mirrored the gritty open-world feel of GTA, and the camera followed shooter POVs, complete with lag effects, and HUD-like framing.
Even the sound replicated controller clicks, bugs, and sudden audio glitches to keep you in “player mode.”
The most unnerving twist came at the climax – a seamless shift from gameplay to grim reality, hammering home that this wasn’t fiction. Gamers watching on Twitch or Discord couldn’t dismiss it as just another mission cutscene.
The Impact
The campaign spread like wildfire. In two weeks, it racked up 22 million views and reached 34 million users, becoming TikTok’s most interactive piece in that region. Searches for “parental control” spiked by 67%, and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime even came calling to explore collaborations.
Awards
“This is Not a Game” didn’t just resonate with audiences – it dominated the awards circuit:
– Cannes Lions 2024 & 2025 – Golds, Silvers, a Bronze, and an Entertainment Lions for Gaming win.
– D&AD Awards 2025 – 2 Graphite Pencils and a Wood Pencil.
– The One Show 2025 – Best of Film & Video.
– Clio Awards 2025 – 2 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze.
Why it Worked?
Simply because, it didn’t sugar-coat. Movistar didn’t try to “gamify” a warning. They weaponized the gaming format itself – using familiar gameplay mechanics to mirror the exact recruitment process happening in real life. The realism was unsettling, and that’s what made it stick.
