Why O&M Brazil Used 'Security Moms' to Keep the Peace at a Football Match

Peace in football. This is what motivated Sport Club do Recife and ad agency Ogilvy Brazil to promote, on February the 8th, an action called ‘Security Moms’. Its immediate success led to a full prime-time coverage by local broadcasting giant Rede Globo on its Sunday evening show Fantástico. 

Approximately 30 women, mothers of Sport supporters, had been trained and prepared to join the security staff for the team’s match against Náutico at Arena Pernambuco. In full uniform (including safety vests) and on guard in strategic points throughout the stadium, the mothers caught the attention of all attendees, including their own children, in an attempt to raise awareness on the importance of the fight against violence between rival football supporters. 

The action also monitored some of the most overzealous supporters reacting to the discovery that those in charge of their fellow supporters’ security were none other than their own moms. Before joining the staff at yesterday’s ‘classic of all classics’, the mothers went through the same security training as that of security professionals: military police officers, private security guards employed by Arena Pernambuco, and volunteers.  

According to Fábio Silva, Sport’s social responsibility vice-president, the campaign had a positive impact on all those attending the event. ‘It is the sort of action that takes everyone by storm. Not in your wildest dreams would you picture coming across your mom at a football game. And, most interestingly, there she was working to promote peace at the stadium’, says Silva. 

‘Our President João Humberto Martorelli spares no efforts to make Sport an active contributor to peace in football. This action had a huge impact. It is the club’s belief that such a beautiful spectacle cannot be destroyed by few individuals that insist on marring it’.

Ogilvy’s creative vice president Aricio Fortes also comments on the action. ‘Our idea was to raise the awareness of fanatical supporters and somehow help bring more peace to football. After all, no one wants to pick a fight when a mother is watching, especially when she is your own’. Ogilvy has previously struck a partnership with Sport for the ‘Immortal Fans’ campaign (2012/13), which resulted in an increase in the number of organ donations in the state of Pernambuco. To spread the word on its intent among all spectators, the action ‘Security Moms’ made use of the giant screens and sound equipment at the stadium.