El Ciudadano Named Best Advertiser at El Ojo de Iberoamérica 2026, Securing Six Awards in Buenos Aires

Original article: El Ciudadano es elegido Mejor Anunciante en El Ojo de Iberoamérica 2026 y suma seis reconocimientos en Buenos Aires

This year, El Ciudadano has been recognized as the Best Advertiser at El Ojo de Iberoamérica 2026, adding six awards to its collection in Buenos Aires. The Chilean media outlet was honored as the Best Advertiser of the competition, winning three silver awards and two bronze awards. Its campaign, «Epstein’s Faces,» created in collaboration with Cheil Chile, has also earned international accolades in New York and at the FIAP Awards.

Buenos Aires, Argentina.– El Ciudadano made a remarkable impact at El Ojo de Iberoamérica 2026, one of the most prestigious advertising creativity festivals in the Ibero-American sphere, being awarded as the Best Advertiser of the event and securing five accolades across categories in Graphic Design and Outdoor Advertising.

This achievement marks a significant recognition for the Chilean media, which garnered three silver awards and two bronze awards, solidifying a creative trajectory that has projected itself beyond journalism and competes on international stages alongside some of the leading agencies and brands in the world.

Central to this performance is the campaign «Epstein’s Faces,» developed by Cheil Chile for El Ciudadano. This initiative transformed one of the most controversial aspects of the publication of the Jeffrey Epstein case documents—the censorship of thousands of official document fragments—into a visually compelling artistic and communicational intervention.

The Campaign: Transforming Censorship into Faces

The idea for «Epstein’s Faces» emerged from the release of the Epstein case files, which contained thousands of words, names, and fragments concealed beneath thick black censorship bars.

The creative proposal involved physically recovering these black bars from the original documents, cutting them out one by one, and repurposing them as material to construct a collage.

Using this material, a designer created portraits of public figures connected to the case, utilizing precisely what had been used to obscure information. Thus, the very bars that aimed to prevent reading the documents ended up shaping the faces of those behind the censorship.

The result was portraits of Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Donald Trump, and former Prince Andrew, crafted through meticulous graphic composition.

“The Epstein Files have revealed to the world what U.S. justice seeks to hide. This was accomplished with art, creativity, and a profound message aimed at exposing an abhorrent reality. I am very pleased with Cheil’s work; I believe that when advertising and journalism unite for good causes, we move towards building that world which those in power often want to deny us,” stated Bruno Sommer, journalist and founder of El Ciudadano.

“We are still trying to grasp the emotion of what we have just experienced. Winning three Silvers and a Bronze at El Ojo de Iberoamérica while being crowned Best Agency, Best Advertiser, and Best Creative in Chile is an immense pride that fills our hearts. When we took the chance to meticulously and analogously portray the investigative bravery of El Ciudadano in tackling such a difficult topic as the Epstein Files, we did it out of pure conviction and love for the craft, without thinking of trophies. Today, to see an idea born from rigor, time, and truth reach the highest echelons of Chilean creativity is the most exciting proof that doing things with soul is always worthwhile,” expressed Javier Monroy, General Creative Director of Cheil Agency.

The strength of the campaign lies in that conceptual investment: what was originally used to hide becomes a tool to reveal. A visual operation that transforms censorship into denunciation and raises questions about transparency, power, and access to information.

A Campaign That Has Already Conquered New York and FIAP

The recognitions received in Buenos Aires add to other international accolades that «Epstein’s Faces» achieved during 2026.

In June, the campaign received a Silver Tower at the New York Festivals Advertising Awards 2026, one of the most prestigious international advertising competitions. The award was given in the Print: Products & Services – Entertainment/Media category.

This award is especially significant as the festival features entries from dozens of countries and involves juries comprised of key figures from the international creative industry. The official listing credits Cheil Chile as the responsible agency and El Ciudadano as the advertiser.

Later, in October, the campaign garnered three more accolades at the FIAP Awards 2026, a historic advertising creativity festival in Ibero-America:

Silver in Production, Graphic Production Techniques – Art Direction.
Bronze in Advertising, Graphic – Campaigns.
Bronze in Advertising, Graphic – Media and Publications.
In this way, the proposal developed for El Ciudadano received recognition across three important industry platforms: New York, FIAP, and El Ojo de Iberoamérica.

Best Advertiser: A Recognition that Goes Beyond a Campaign

Among the awards obtained in Buenos Aires, one of the most significant recognitions is the title of Best Advertiser awarded to El Ciudadano.

This award carries a different dimension than the accolades given to individual pieces. It acknowledges the advertiser’s performance within the advertising ecosystem and values its capacity to promote creative proposals, develop campaigns, and build a relevant communicational identity.

For a Chilean media outlet to receive this distinction at an Ibero-American festival is particularly meaningful, especially in an industry featuring major commercial brands, multinationals, and organizations from various countries.

What Winning at El Ojo de Iberoamérica Means

El Ojo de Iberoamérica is a benchmark festival for international advertising creativity. Since its inception, it has become a meeting point for agencies, advertisers, producers, creative directors, and communication professionals from Latin America, Spain, and Portugal.

The event recognizes work across disciplines such as graphic advertising, outdoor media, audiovisual production, digital communication, innovation, strategy, and creativity.

Its awards hold special prestige within the industry as they allow comparison and acknowledgment of ideas from different markets and cultures, evaluated by professionals with international experience.

Winning an award at El Ojo signifies that a campaign has distinguished itself in a highly competitive environment, where some of the most significant agencies and brands in Ibero-America participate.

In this context, El Ciudadano’s recognition as Best Advertiser, along with its five awards in different categories, represents a relevant outcome for Chilean communication and for a media outlet that has managed to elevate a journalism-derived approach and the freedom of information into the top circuits of advertising creativity.

With «Epstein’s Faces,» El Ciudadano and Cheil Chile demonstrated that an idea based on a matter of public interest can transcend journalism boundaries and also become an industry-recognized campaign.

Agency Team

Agency: Cheil
Executive General Creative Director: Felipe Ortiz
General Creative Director: Javier Monroy
Creative Director: Felipe Mora
Creative Team: Emilio Sepúlveda – Francisca Duhamel – Fernanda Saguas
General Account Director: Claudia Guajardo

Producer: Cylndr
Executive Producer: Alejandra Paredes
Post Production Supervisor : Diego Fornazzariinternacional.

El Ciudadano