Consul Bets on Absence to Win Brazil's Football Fans
Consul's Clean Sponsorship campaign, created by DM9 in Brazil in February 2024, removed every sponsor logo — including Consul's own — from the centenary match shirt of Clube Atlético Juventus during the Paulista A2 championship, using the act of erasure itself as a demonstration of the brand's washing machine credentials.
Shirt sponsorship in Brazilian football has evolved considerably since 1970, when clubs first began selling jersey space to commercial partners. By the early 2020s, the monetisation of that space had intensified to the point where a shirt's coat of arms, colours, and player information were frequently obscured beneath layered commercial insignia, triggering a wider debate in Brazil about the devaluation of what fans regard as a sacred garment. Consul and DM9 identified that tension as a creative opening. Rather than purchasing a conventional logo placement on Juventus da Mooca's shirt, Consul sponsored the removal of every mark from it — restoring the jersey to the unencumbered state in which it was originally designed to be seen.
The campaign ran across integrated channels in Brazil throughout the 2024 Paulista A2 season, coinciding precisely with Clube Atlético Juventus's centenary year — a milestone that amplified the emotional resonance of returning the club's shirt to its original identity. Icaro Doria, co-president and CCO of DM9, articulated the strategic logic directly: "The team shirts were initially designed to be seen that way, clean. That's why a sponsorship without any logo display, not even Consul's, managed to create an even stronger relationship with the team and fans." The campaign earned a Clapboard Score of 74 out of 100, reflecting strong creative originality and cultural relevance within the household products category in Brazil.
Consul operates within a fiercely contested household appliance market in Brazil. The brand is owned by Whirlpool Corporation and sits within the Whirlpool Latin America portfolio alongside Brastemp, its sister brand. According to Bluestudio Estadao Com Br, Whirlpool's combined Brastemp and Consul portfolio held approximately 38 percent of Brazil's T3 appliance segment — encompassing washing machines, refrigerators, and stoves — in 2024, gaining one percentage point over the prior year. That share position places Consul in direct competition with global giants such as LG Electronics and Samsung, both of which maintain significant presence in the Brazilian market according to Lg and News Samsung respectively.
DM9's strategic insight was grounded in a genuine cultural grievance. Brazilian football fans have long considered the club shirt a near-sacred object, and the progressive commercialisation of jersey space had generated authentic public discomfort. By sponsoring Juventus da Mooca's centenary shirt in the Paulista A2 championship — and doing so by funding the removal of all commercial marks rather than adding another — Consul positioned its washing machine range as a force for restoration rather than accumulation. The connection to the product was direct and unforced: a washing machine restores things to their original condition, and that is precisely what the sponsorship enacted on the pitch in Brazil.
The timing within Clube Atlético Juventus's centenary year was not incidental. A club turning one hundred years old in 2024 naturally invites reflection on heritage and original identity, giving Consul a culturally loaded moment in which the act of cleaning carried weight far beyond detergent. According to bluestudio.estadao.com.br, Brazil's broader T3 appliance category recorded a 12 percent sales increase in 2024, signalling a receptive commercial environment for a brand activation designed to drive preference as well as awareness.
The creative execution of Clean Sponsorship rested on a deliberate and disciplined act of subtraction. DM9 São Paulo built the entire campaign around the visual and symbolic power of a shirt bearing no marks at all — not the sponsor's identity, not the agency's credit, and not any of the commercial partners that typically populate a Brazilian football jersey during a competitive league season. The Paulista A2 championship matches provided the live broadcast canvas on which the clean shirt appeared, allowing the absence of logos to function as the campaign's most legible message.
Icaro Doria, co-president and CCO of DM9, served as the campaign's primary creative voice and is documented in the AdForum listing from February 29, 2024 as the source of its central strategic rationale. His articulation of the idea — that shirts were originally designed to be seen without commercial marks, and that honouring that design produces a stronger brand relationship than overlaying it — gave the execution an intellectual rigour that elevated it beyond a simple publicity stunt. The campaign was classified as an integrated medium execution, with a single primary media asset anchoring broader earned and owned channel activity across Brazil.
The craft choice most central to the work was the decision to make Consul's absence its presence. In a media environment saturated with brand marks competing for attention on Brazilian football shirts, a completely clean jersey became immediately conspicuous and photographically arresting. That visual distinctiveness translated directly into press coverage and social conversation, generating earned media reach that conventional logo placement would not have produced. Production credits beyond Icaro Doria's documented role are not fully detailed in publicly available sources for this campaign, though DM9 São Paulo is confirmed as the agency of record responsible for the 2024 activation, as noted in campaign records cited by Reason Why.
Clean Sponsorship delivered verified commercial and cultural results across every reported dimension. According to reasonwhy.es, the campaign generated a 12 percent increase in sales for Consul washing machines and a four-percentage-point increase in brand preference. The same source, alongside ddb.com, reports that the campaign produced the equivalent of US$28 million in earned media, a figure that underscores the amplification power of a concept the press and public chose to circulate without paid promotion.
The awards record is equally substantive. According to Cannes Lions, the campaign won a Gold Lion in the Media — Sponsorship and Partnerships category in 2024 and a second Gold Lion in Brand Experience and Activation, along with a Silver Lion in the Direct category. As reported by Roastbrief Com Mx, Clean Sponsorship also won Gran Ojo Contenido at El Ojo Media, and El Ojo de Iberoamérica confirmed it as Gran Ojo Media winner on November 22, 2024. The D&AD archive confirms a campaign entry, though the award level from that body is not verified in available sources, according to dandad.org.
Structurally, the campaign's effectiveness stems from the precise alignment between product function and brand behaviour. A washing machine's purpose is to restore — to return something to its original condition — and the sponsorship enacted that purpose literally and publicly in front of Brazilian football audiences during the Paulista A2 season. That coherence between what Consul sells and what Consul did in Clube Atlético Juventus's centenary year is the foundation on which every measurable result was built. The Clapboard Score of 74 out of 100 reflects the campaign's strength in creative originality, cultural timing, and strategic clarity within the household products category.
Clean Sponsorship is a 2024 campaign by Consul and DM9 in Brazil that removed all sponsor logos — including Consul's own — from Clube Atlético Juventus's match shirt during the Paulista A2 season. The act of erasure served as a direct demonstration of Consul's washing machine brand, linking product function to cultural gesture during the club's centenary year.
DM9 São Paulo created the Clean Sponsorship campaign for Consul in February 2024. Icaro Doria, co-president and CCO of DM9, is the documented creative lead on the campaign and articulated its central rationale in campaign records. The work ran across integrated channels during Brazil's 2024 Paulista A2 football championship.
Consul's Clean Sponsorship won two Gold Lions at Cannes Lions 2024 — one in Media, Sponsorship and Partnerships and one in Brand Experience and Activation — along with a Silver Lion in Direct, according to Cannes Lions. The campaign also won Gran Ojo Contenido and Gran Ojo Media at El Ojo de Iberoamérica, as reported by roastbrief.com.mx.
Clube Atlético Juventus turned 100 years old in 2024, making its centenary season a culturally resonant moment to restore the club's shirt to its original logo-free condition. The centenary framing amplified the emotional weight of the gesture, connecting Consul's washing machine positioning to a story about heritage, identity, and the value of the original in Brazilian football.
According to reasonwhy.es and ddb.com, Clean Sponsorship generated a 12 percent increase in Consul washing machine sales, a four-percentage-point rise in brand preference, and the equivalent of US$28 million in earned media. These results were achieved through a campaign that carried no paid logo placement, relying entirely on the cultural and press impact of the clean-shirt concept.
Consul sells washing machines, and a washing machine restores items to their original condition. Clean Sponsorship enacted that function literally by removing commercial marks from Juventus da Mooca's centenary shirt in Brazil's 2024 Paulista A2 season. The alignment between product purpose and brand behaviour is the structural reason the campaign earned both commercial results and critical recognition.
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