The Handmaid’s Tale shocked the world with its portrayal of women’s subjugation to men. But the book and its TV series are fiction. María de Pereda and Sofía Carmona, students at the Brother Madrid School of Creativity can see that it bears alarming similarities to a real and growing movement in the US. So, they have created a disturbing campaign, The American Tale, that shows how certain statements made by US politicians could easily have been pulled straight from The Handmaid’s Tale. That sheds light on how some political rhetoric in the U.S. is normalising ideas that sound alarmingly dystopian.
The American Tale’s campaign launch coincided with the premiere of the final season of The Handmaid’s Tale in the US. At the heart of the campaign is a trailer that begins like any other series promo… until a twist reveals real quotes from public figures such as Trump, Tucker Carlson, and Doporto.
“We want to raise awareness about how certain voices are pushing the US political discourse toward a deeply concerning place,” Carmona and De Pereda explained.
The trailer is crafted in the unmistakable style of The Handmaid’s Tale. It begins as a seemingly authentic promotion for the series, but quickly reveals a striking twist. Featuring real quotes from politicians such as Tucker Carlson’s “The country is run by a bunch of childless cat ladies”, Donald Trump’s “I will protect women, whether they like it or not”, and Doporto’s “Women have the right to cook, clean, and get slapped”, the campaign emphasises how these words increasingly resemble a dystopia already watched on screen.
The campaign also includes a series of bold visuals that highlight the same quotes, encouraging viewers to question just how close today’s political rhetoric might be to laying the groundwork for a future of oppression in the US.
“Our goal is to reveal how these narratives are normalising ideas that, if left unchallenged, could put at risk rights we once took for granted,” Carmona and De Pereda stated.
