collecting dust and waiting for a new opportunity | Relief
In Alcarras, a municipality in Catalonia located in the Segria region, in Lleida, where Carla Simon’s unsuccessful Oscar film was celebrated, he rests peacefully. the famous canvas 50 meters high and 20 meters wide, which Joan Laporta unfurled in Madrid in the last election campaign. This is done in an industrial warehouse located on the N-11a highway. 178 kilometers from Barcelona and 445 from Madrid. A gigantic but cold enclosure guarded by Ramon Tomas. Surrounding the mythical canvas is an impressive collection of Harley Davidsons and vintage cars, as well as paintings reminiscent of symbolic scenes of the seventh art, such as the photograph of Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in Holidays in Rome. In the next room, a table football table, tested by Joan Laporta himself, awaits.. The caravan that accompanied the current president’s election campaign and which Ramon lent him is also parked in a place that breathes gasoline on all four sides.
On December 15, 2020, Joan Laporta began to win the elections on March 7, 2021, after a brilliant move by Luis Carrasco, head of the presidential communications campaign. It was a coup of power. The banner was placed on Paseo de la Habana, on scaffolding just 140 meters from the Santiago Bernabeu stadium, with the slogan: “I want to see you again.”. A strategic action that went viral in the house of an eternal rival. It was an ingenious movement, the strength of which was difficult to measure, but the candidacy of Laporta himself was perceived as the key to the result. Relevo sat down to talk with the ideologist of everything, Luis Carrasco. “It was Laporta who suggested that we hold a gigantic external action in the city. We were looking for a location and I automatically thought of Madrid and the Santiago Bernabeu, taking advantage of the fact that it was still under construction,” he says.
Laporta’s reaction was “unexpected”, Carrasco admits. “He expected us to do it in Diagonal, Paseo de Gracia or Sagrada Familia.but he was very surprised when we told him Madrid and Bernabeu. We wanted to create a big virality that would attract the interest of all Spanish and world media. We expected it to be a very powerful promotion, but we did not expect it to be the most viral promotion in Spanish advertising,” he congratulates himself. Finally they found the building 15 floors in front of the Madrid Colosseum. The song “I want to see you again” spread all over the world. “The original motto we proposed was “A great team needs a better opponent, Laporta returns”, but the President thought a little and told us what he wanted to say was, “I’m looking forward to it.” “I told him it couldn’t happen and we went for ‘I want to see you again.’
The painting survived three years later. A little dust, but no scratches. Ramon Tomas, a security guard at his industrial warehouse in Alcarraz, tells Relevo about the transfer. “The tarpaulin arrived through an agency. It took about two or three days, so we thought he was lost; I didn’t believe it,” he says. The ending was happy, and the painting eventually arrived, albeit with some consternation. “It came folded up and we kept it until LaPorta arrived during the campaign and we had an event where the whole team unwrapped the tarp. This is the only day we revealed it.. “People closest to us know it’s in Alcarraz, but it hasn’t been made public, so no one has ever asked us,” he explains.
Ramon Tomás, a friend of the president, offered to keep the tarpaulin as soon as he left Madrid, a month after the start of the commercial campaign. “During the action, it became necessary to preserve the tarpaulin for the social action. although later there was a change in criteria and here we maintain it with great pride and enthusiasm“I think the Barça museum should be there because it was an important turning point. In any case, I’m saving it in case Yang wants to use it to campaign for the next election.“, he concludes.
Three years after becoming presidentBarcelona is not going through its best moment, despite winning titles (League and Super Cup) last season. Away from Real Madrid in the league, eight points and no chance of two titles. The Champions League is the only path to success. A difficult company for a club with economic needs, now led by Laporta, who came to the office, among other things, for the sake of a genius who now rests in a warehouse in Alcarraz.