Donald Trump might be right: maybe the best thing the United States can do is to not let Latin Americans in.

At least that’s how Argentinian sports channel TyC Sports is interpreting the Republicans’ presumed presidential nominee’s anti-immigration speech as the Argentinian national soccer team prepares to crush its rivals in the Centennial Copa America tournament, kicking off June 3 in Santa Clara, Calif., and traveling to such cities as Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.

The spot (above), which interweaves Trump’s comments with imagery of Argentina’s popular soccer team and its passionate fans making their way to America, has been wildly popular all over the globe. It’s been seen in 193 countries across five continents, scoring almost three million organic views and 1,946,482 viewing minutes across the channel’s social networks alone. It also created an impact in the world press with articles published in 42 countries and 14 languages. TyC Sports itself reaches 13,570,000 combined national and international households.

The spot cleverly twists Trump’s speech into a commentary on the fearsome abilities of the Argentinian national team and its blue-and-white clad fans, waving their flags and painting their faces.

Trump narrates: “Thousands of people are coming through the border, hundreds of thousands, and they are unchecked and then they are being sent all over the United States,” as images of the Argentinian national team descending on to an American tarmac flash. “

They are coming from all over, they are coming from South America,” Trump continues, while the spot shows French-born footballer Gonzalo Gerardo Higuaín, who plays professionally for Italy’s Napoli when not playing for Argentina, dazzling his opponents.

“These are total killers,” intones Trump as Ángel Di María scores an incredible goal. That’s followed by a close-up on global superstar Lionel Messi’s face, also known for his short and “harmless” stature, illustrating that “these are not the nice, sweet little people that you think.”

Finally, Trump says “we have no protection,” in the midst of a tricky defensive move by Argentinian players Sergio Agüero (of Manchester City), Javier Pastore (of Paris Saint-Germain) and Gonzalo Higuaín that results in the trio stealing the ball.

These Latin American threats, juxtaposed with Trump’s call to build a wall to keep them out, bring to mind the Spanish soccer expression “poner un colectivo frente al arco” (which translates to “parking a bus in front of the goal”) or more literally, staunchly defending a goal from an oncoming offense.

“[The wall] has to be built quickly,” says Trump, as “they are totally taking advantage of us.” Clearly, the spot seems to suggest, if the United States (soccer team, that is) doesn’t act quickly, the Argentinian team will destroy them.

The spot concludes with a tagline in the white and sky-blue colors of the Argentinian flag that both aligns with and opposes Trump’s remarks, slyly noting: “The truth is, the best they can do is not let us in.”

Mariano Malvasio, head of marketing at TyC Sports, denies that the spot has anything to do with Trump’s politics and says instead that this satire in the name of soccer is about “the channel’s DNA. TyC Sports is focused on the Argentinian sentiment; our channel is close to the people and to what is really happening.” In this campaign we decided to “communicate from that Argentinian sentiment, appealing to passion and emotion, values that are also closely related to soccer.”

When creating the piece, TyC Sports analyzed the context of Copa America 2016: this year marks the 100th anniversary of the tournament, which is being held in the United States for the first time. Because the U.S. is not as interested in soccer as say, football or basketball, the channel decided to approach its promotion from another angle and looked at the current issues and most relevant personalities in the United States. Unsurprisingly, Donald Trump stood out as “a well-known personality who is everywhere: because of his speech, because of his views and because he is winning the primaries,” says Malvasio.

TyC has previously used this approach. In 2013, the channel promoted the 2014 World Cup with a spot that turned Pope Francis’ words into a message of encouragement to the national team and to all of the Argentinian people. In that case, Malvasio says “we chose the Pope for several reasons: because he is Argentinian, because of his relevance and because he is a big soccer fan. It all made perfect sense,” he adds.

The current campaign for the Copa América also includes the spot “América,” which initially had been intended only for digital but turned out so well and got such a good response that TyC Sports played it on air as well.

“América” is built around American phrases, drawn from movies, pop culture and the general lexicon.

“They are phrases that speak for themselves and we found a way to make them representative to us, with our vision of soccer and of Argentina’s national team,” says Malvasio. This is why they are “all illustrated with images linked to soccer rivalry,” maintaining the channel’s wink to its audience, as in the phrase “I see dead people,” which in this case refers not to Bruce Willis but to the Brazilians when their national team crashed out of the 2014 World Cup.

“América” plays with other American idiomatic phrases such as “Houston, we have a problem,” against the backdrop of Argentinian players stepping off a plane in an airport that represents Houston – one of the venues of this year’s Copa America; “Run Forrest Run,” with images of the team running on the field; or “Yes, We Can,” Barack Obama’s campaign slogan, which is accompanied by a meeting of the Argentinian team on the field.

Malvasio says these TyC Sports pieces were created with advertising agency Mercado McCann, an important partner: “We have been working together for many years now and we feel very comfortable and happy with them. The ideas come from their side, as in all traditional processes, and we shape them together.”

This collaborative work process has been growing for the last seven years, and together they continue to set the bar high.

That doesn’t worry Malvasio: “We are constantly rising to find a breath of fresh air without stepping down from this altitude.”<

To read this story in Spanish, click here.

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