Costa Rica's Annual Pilgrimage Goes Viral

Taking Traditional Trek Digital Wins Top Award at Volcan Ad Festival
Posted by Laurel Wentz on 03.04.10 @ 11:17 AM

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- It sounds like the slacker's version of a religious pilgrimage -- substituting a long, arduous trek to a holy site with an effortless stay-at-home digital version. But the Catholic Church welcomed the idea when Costa Rica's Minister of Health last year banned the country's famous, annual 228-year-old pilgrimage along with all other major public gatherings at the height of the outbreak of the H1N1 flu virus.

Traditionally more than 1 million of Costa Rica's population of 5.5 million does the annual walk to the Basilica Virgen de Los Angeles, a huge church in Cartago, a small town outside the capital city of San Jose. When the government controversially outlawed the popular religious gathering on public-health grounds, the Catholic Church's official radio station Radio Fides appealed to its new ad agency for help. Jotabequ Grey's solution, taking the centuries-old tradition online, won the award for best ad at last week's Volcan ad festival in Costa Rica.

Read full article:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1543292789?bctid=70013006001

See Video:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1543292789?bctid=70013006001