When you have a city that’s tracking a whopping 11 homicides per day, and with a police task force only a third as big as a city its size should have, what do you do to curb crime? You play a game of pretend and create the illusion of a police force that does not exist, naturally.

That’s what J.Walter Thompson and El Hatillo District in Caracas, an extremely dangerous and volatile area of Venezuela, recently did in a social experiment that supposedly got people out on the streets and enjoying life with a lesser degree of fear.

You see, in this city of only 157 police officers (there should be 400 in order to properly protect its residents), there is a cemetery of out-of-service police cars that cannot be repaired because there is simply no budget. So the agency decided to take things into its own hands and rescue and restore the cars, which were then placed in pockets of the city. The restored cars sat in streets and parking lots, with only a few surveillance cameras placed nearby, creating a sense of security for the people of the city.

The agency then took the footage from the days when the “Invisible Police” were present and juxtaposed that with footage from another day where there were no fake police present. The clips compared the exact time of day, and there was a stark difference — the Invisible Police footage showed people walking outside, while the other footage showed empty and desolate streetscapes.

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The film is meant to show the importance of police in a a district wrought with problems, and implores the national government to support by providing the necessary funds to bring actual security, and not just the mirage of safety.

Credits:

Agency:  J. Walter Thompson
CEO: Roberto Pol
General Account Director: Tatiana Ferro
Creative Director: Javier De Bourg / Sergio Sánchez
Art Director: Javier De Bourg /Agustín González / Alejandro Bolivar / Luis Rojas
Copywritter: Sergio Sánchez / Jesús Franco / Leomary De Lima
Account Executive: Anabel Salgueiro
Copy Producer: Jessica Mejía / Stefanía Chehade
Social Media Manager: Daniela Franco
Content Manager: Jenire Sánchez
Planner: Gustavo Behrens
Social Creative Manager: Astrid Machado