Corrido of Duty

Over 45 million viewers, 1 Grand and 3 Golds at the Clio Entertainment Awards, 5 nominations at Cannes Lions, 8 at The One Show, 1 at The Andy Awards, 2 at D&AD, 1 Gold at IAB Mixx, 4 awards at El Ojo Festival, 5 at FIAP, and 1 Grand Prix at the YouTube Works Awards.

A music video featuring Mexico’s most popular regional music band and the world’s most famous video game. «Corrido of Duty», a global campaign for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, introduces «Corrido 141», performed by Banda MS in tribute to Task Force 141 and its fight against narcos and organized crime in Mexico.

Context: 5 out of 10 of the most violent cities in the world are in Mexico, because drug cartels have impacted our society. It was time to challenge world’s perception of our country. So, to solve a problem, we need to change reality. Music does that. And we have a unique music genre for it: narco corrido. A popular music genre that glorifies narcos and their crimes.
Idea: We used the most unexpected solution to change perception and to enhance identity. Call of Duty presents: Corrido of Duty. The narco music genre, now sings to the good guys. For Call of Duty’s most recent launch, we summoned Banda MS, the most famous corrido band in Mexico. Together, we created and composed “Corrido 141” exclusively for the franchise. A song dedicated to the good guys of the game. An action that revolutionized the gaming world and turned upside down the narrative of this music genre for the first time. No more narco songs, now we sing for heroes. The song was also included on the official soundtrack of the game and during gameplay. An acoustic version of the song can be heard after the ending credits as a bonus track. People took it as their anthem and even as a local idea it reached everyone in the world. Never has a videogame embraced a country’s culture like this. Now when you think of Mexico, you’ll think of the good guys. And instead of hacking a videogame, we hacked culture, with a game.
Results: Top 1 video in Activision history with positive sentiment, Top 1 video in COD history without gameplay footage, +45 million views on YouTube, +70 million plays in music platforms (Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer), 1.41 billion impressions, 1.09 million comments, 1 billion game sessions, 1 billion dollar sales, highest grossing entertainment opening of 2022.