No 2012
This is a movie about a really interesting part of Chile's political history. In 1988, after violently overthrowing a democratically elected government and running Chile with an iron fist for many years, Augusto Pinochet honored a promise to let the people decide if he should stay in power for eight more years (Yes) or let the country elect a new leader (No). The movie is about a talented ad executive (fictional) brought on board to help out the No campaign. He tries to caution this group of opposition leaders not to focus on the downer of thousands of executions and torture victims (many of their associates and friends), but on a campaign of happy songs and positivity more in keeping with his area of expertise doing cola ads on TV. While it seems obvious that people would vote against Pinochet, there were a number of things working in his favor. For one, it seemed like he would have no problem stuffing ballot boxes in his favor and had won a similar referendum in 1980 which was widely considered fraudulent. Also, if the opposition came out in public, some bad things could happen to them so this was a real risk. The movie works well as a period piece of culture and advertising in 1988 as well as the political angle and a story of a guy taking a lot of risks to help out a campaign. It covers a little of Pinochet's campaign, primarily as a contrast, showing how his dictatorial control resulted in a much worse campaign. It isn't a great movie and there was more to the campaign than just these ads, but it is a good story and well done, filmed on videotape to match news footage of the era.
Written: 30 Oct 2025