Venezuelan Football Team Stages Virtual Game Using Babies' Kicks In The Womb

The Venezuelan national football team and Estudiantes De Caracas enlisted FCB RG2 to create the campaign, "Little Kicks," to help encourage moms to sign their kids up for one of the team's academies, and "make them bigger fans of the sport, in general," according to Christine Birkner of ADWEEK. The agency brought in 10 soon-to-be moms and dads to stage a virtual football game "between unborn kids." Using motion sensor technology attached to the mothers' bellies, the babies' kicks "were converted into electric impulses readable by a computer, which the parents could see on a screen." FCB RG2 Founder & Chief Creative Officer Exequiel Rodriguez said, "From talking with medical experts, we knew that the week of pregnancy in which babies start to move more inside the bellies is week 28, so we casted real moms three months early to have them ready for that week by the day of production." Every time a baby moved, "it corresponded with a kick, pass or shot" on the virtual football field. The agency shot footage of the "game," complete with excited parents' reactions, for an ad that promoted the team and its football academy. Rodriguez said, "We knew that for it to resonate, we needed to make it very true and real. Moms and dads did not know what would happen on set, because we wanted to show real emotions from them" (ADWEEK, 6/1).