How Miami Beach Delivered a Dose of Reality (TV)

Year after year Miami Beach is sought out by spring breakers due to its idyllic shorelines, renowned pool parties, and exciting club culture. In 2025, it was ranked number two on U.S. News’ 'Best Spring Break Destinations' list, reinstating its place as a hotspot for sun seeking students with a penchant for partying. But for locals, late February to early March is a hellish time to live in Miami Beach. 

After two deadly shootings made global headlines in 2023, the city announced curfews and a slew of other measures such as $100 parking, DUI checkpoints and heightened police presence. 

For the past two years, VML has collaborated with the City of Miami Beach on deterring visitors with the partying mindset from visiting during the spring break season. Following the success of their viral 2024 campaign, and aligning with the Mayor of Miami Beach who recently announced this year’s Spring Break strategy “will continue to be focused on public safety and include various high-impact measures that will be imposed along with traffic and staffing plans”, the brand activation agency was determined to capture lightning in a bottle two years in a row.  

“We knew we couldn't just rehash the rules; we needed a fresh, disruptive approach,” says Jaime Baron, group director of account management at VML. “Traditional "don't do this" ads are about as effective as a screen door on a submarine. We knew we needed to break the mould and grab attention.” 

Brainstorming sessions led to the idea of a reality TV parody, a format the entire team collectively gravitated towards, knowing it would perfectly encapsulate the drama of spring break expectations versus reality, while also presenting the chance to clearly communicate the core ‘Miami Beach and Spring Break do not mix’ message. “The reality TV parody format allowed us to deliver a serious message about the consequences of rule-breaking in a way that felt fresh, funny, and, dare we say, binge-worthy,” says Jaime. 

Having decided on the format, the next challenge was recruiting a production company with both commercial experience and a malleable approach. Given their long history of successful collaborations, ALTERED.LA was brought on board, with Marcos Cline Marquez leading the charge as EP. 

“ALTERED.LA’s strengths lie in navigating multiple formats and producing work that doesn’t fit into the traditional commercial mould,” says Marcos. “When VML called me to get my take, we were immediately aligned: the success of this campaign would hinge on whether it truly looked and felt like a real reality show. From there, my role was to assemble the right team to make that happen.”

In order to ensure authenticity, VML agreed with Marcos' suggestion to work with an established reality TV producer. With over 15 years’ experience producing reality megahits like Below Deck, Jackie Robbins stood out as the ideal candidate for the role of creative lead, so Marcos began work building a powerhouse crew around her. 

“This campaign goes far beyond being a “traditional ad” – it’s a fully realised story unfolding across multiple formats and platforms, each piece contributing to a larger narrative. We weren’t just creating an ad; we were building a world,” Marcos explains. “For this to work, every asset had to feel like an authentic extension of that universe. A conventional approach wouldn’t have achieved that level of immersion. By stepping away from traditional advertising tropes, we allowed ourselves the freedom to craft something that felt organic, binge-worthy, and culturally relevant—something that people wanted to engage with rather than just consume.”

Tackling a unique PSA such as this was not straightforward, but thanks to Jackie’s background in both reality TV and branded content, she had a clear idea of how to tackle this brief and got to work right away.

“We had to imagine what a season of this show would look like, identifying story arcs, then isolating what those key moments would be to tell that story, and formulating a plan to capture them organically on an accelerated timeline,” she remembers. “It was definitely an aggressive shoot schedule, but we had an incredibly talented camera team led by Pedro Feria Pino and DP Lucas O’Brien, who embraced the challenge of tackling twice as many locations, scenes and setups in half the time they would typically have if shooting an actual show.” 

Jackie understood exactly what had to be done to best utilise the cast and the crew. “We had three days to shoot a whole season’s worth of “supertease” footage which is the same challenge I’m faced with when navigating a sizzle reel to pitch a new series, so I applied those same strategies in our approach to filming this. We wanted to create a teaser that felt so authentic, people would think it was a real show and wonder where and when they get to watch it, up until that “gotcha” moment of the PSA reveal.”

“I was provided with an incredible blueprint to work with in terms of the initial script that would serve as our outline, but also given the freedom to reverse engineer how to get there as the “resident reality expert”,” she says. 

To convince audiences that this really was a TV show, ALTERED.LA had to shoot plenty of content that felt authentic to the story. For example, Jackie tells LBB, it had been established in preproduction that a “drink splash in the face” montage moment was a trademark of reality TV show teasers that simply had to make the cut. “Instead of shooting this moment as a one-off beat from a scripted perspective, I wanted to let our cast sit down to actually have lunch together, engaging with real servers as they normally would, giving them conversation topics to discuss, and eventually letting the tension escalate into that ultimate blow-up to get our “money shot” – while also shooting the fallout after the fight.” 

Although everyone was aligned on the overriding objective of this campaign, with hopes of achieving similar success to last year’s campaign, no one quite expected such a huge landslide victory. 

”I knew the idea was fantastic, but until it was out in the world, there was that lingering question: Will people get it?” Marcos admits, reflecting on the ad’s performance. “That anxiety quickly gave way to great satisfaction. It’s not about one single comment – it’s about the collective response. The overwhelmingly positive reactions, the engagement, the excitement… People love it! And as creators, that’s what brings us the greatest joy and pride in our work.” 

Also thrilled with the reaction is Jaime, who says, “The response has been phenomenal! Social media is buzzing. People are loving the humour, the relatability, and the clever way we've flipped the script on spring break expectations. The fact that so many people are clamouring for a full season proves we've hit a nerve and created something truly engaging.”

There’s a reason for this engagement, says Jackie, who has produced multiple reality series. “‘Spring Break Reality Check’" is the classic comedy of errors and exploration of Murphy’s law. There’s a science behind why we can’t look away from tragedy, which completely applies to what makes for compelling television. Studies have shown that we react to negative experiences and learn more from them than from positive ones, so that’s where the need for drama comes into play. There’s something so much more satisfying about watching real people go through any kind of human experience vs. actors playing characters in a scripted comedy or drama, because it’s easier to put yourself in their shoes. At the root of this story is a group of friends who are navigating a multitude of conflicts, pushing their emotional limits to their breaking points, and ultimately testing their bonds. It creates an engaging experience for any audience because those are universally relatable experiences.” 

Jaime believes the well-oiled partnership between VML and City of Miami Beach is also deserving of credit. “Our close relationship with the City of Miami Beach ensured our campaign seamlessly integrated with the city's comprehensive spring break strategy. As a result, the message is clear: Miami Beach prioritises public safety and a respectful environment for everyone. Our campaign dramatises the very real consequences of ignoring the rules, reinforcing the city's commitment to maintaining order without sacrificing the wit and engaging tone needed to reach our target audience. 

Signing off, Marcos muses: “With this campaign, we not only informed viewers, but we did so in a way that entertained and resonated deeply – because it looks and feels like the real thing. That’s a testament not just to the production team, but also to an agency and client who were willing to take risks and break away from traditional advertising formulas.”