Every year in Spain, more than 1,050 people lose their lives in road accidents. And yet, no matter how devastating, these real tragedies rarely stay in our minds. Meanwhile, conversations are filled with deaths that aren’t real. When a character dies in a hit series, people react instantly – shocked, animated and eager to discuss it. That’s a dire blind spot. Real road deaths, caused by distractions, speeding, or alcohol consumption, have real consequences.

For HeimatTBWA, it was the foundation of a strikingly different campaign idea. One to shock people into reassessing road safety. The agency created Reality Is Worse Than Fiction for the 25^th anniversary of StopAccidentes, a campaign that puts real road deaths to the fore in people’s memories, where they should be.

Reality Is Worse Than Fiction was built on research showing that social media usage goes up by four times when shocking TV deaths happen, with some even sparking dedicated pages to pay remembrance too.

To confront that contradiction head-on HeimatTBWA breaks through the cultural blind spot, by reimaging famous posters from the most talked about TV shows, such as Squid Game, The Last of Us, and Severance. At first glance, each billboard looks like a real series promotion. But with a closer look something far heavier emerges – an accident is hidden in plain sight and instead of actors, directors, or producers, the credits list the names of real people who died in road accidents in Spain. It’s a powerful tribute to real lives lost – Josep, Pablo, Jessica, and many others who will never return.

The campaign was published in more than 30 cities across Spain.