At the 2025 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Havas Costa Rica’s ed-pol-centred campaign, Lessons of Shame, took home two prizes: one Gold Lion and one Silver Brand Experience and Activation Lion.
Created alongside World Vision Costa Rica (an international and religious fellowship), the campaign attempts to address a prominent social issue within the country: its declining quality and infrastructure in education, which it attributes to a lack of budget.
In the case study film, 20 students from various high schools and colleges turned the public viewing area of the Costa Rican Legislative Assembly into a makeshift classroom. This took place on March 4, 2025, the same day the Assembly discussed a potential cut in the country’s education budget.
According to the campaign outcome results listed in the Cannes case study, the protest stunt halted the budget cut during the Assembly hearing, caused the legislators to approve a $73 million increase to the education budget and inspired the candidates for the 2026 Costa Rican presidential election — Álvaro Ramos, Claudia Dobles, Juan Carlos Hidalgo and Sergio Mena — to add education reform to their campaign promises.
From the Campaign’s perspective, the protest carried out on March 4, 2025, appears to have been a standalone stunt produced by Havas Costa Rica that was used to tie in the educational needs of Costa Rica to submit the case to Cannes Lions. When asked to disprove this, Havas Costa Rica declined to comment.
After a thorough investigation of Lessons of Shame following a tip from three anonymous sources and reviewing information provided by Havas Costa Rica one week after Campaign’s initial outreach, Campaign cannot verify the claim of the $73 million increase, nor any direct correlation between the protest and the presidential candidates’ platforms on education reform.
What we know
In Campaign’s previous article , first calling out the campaign under scrutiny, it was stated there was no video proof of the protest occurring on March 5, a date provided by a source. There is indeed footage of the protest stunt taking place on March 4, 2025, instead.
The clips in Lessons of Shame match the footage of the session, which is livestreamed to the Assembly’s YouTube channel and available for the public to view. Education is discussed throughout the session. In this context, the footage used in the campaign film is not misleading.
Lessons of Shame claims the protest influenced the agenda of the 108th session. However, upon viewing the livestream, the legislators appear to have pre-prepared speeches for their floor times.
Media coverage
There is coverage regarding the protest on various news outlets such as Diario Extra, Delfino, Periódico Mensaje, El Norte Hoy and more. However, the $73 million increase that allegedly occurred during the session as a result of the protest is not mentioned in the press coverage reviewed by Campaign.
In an article published by José Quirós of the publication Repretel, legislator Geison Valverde of Partido Liberación Nacional (National Liberation Party) “highlighted the presence of the students and underscored the importance of ensuring investment in quality education, as well as the urgent need to improve educational infrastructure in remote areas of San José.”
Additionally, a headline — “60 Minutes That Changed Everything” — by Spanish-language publication La Nación, which was pictured at 2:00 in the Lessons of Shame film, does not appear to be traceable on the news website.
The $73 million (₡36.823 billion) increase
In the Cannes Lions case study, Lessons of Shame claims the protest carried out during the Legislative Assembly session on March 4, 2025, caused the lawmakers to pass an increase of $73 million in Costa Rica’s education budget. This number does not match the education budget increases that took place in 2025.
According to an article published by Semanario Universidad on May 27, 2025, a proposed increase in the 2026 base budget for negotiation of the Fondo Especial para la Educación Superior (Special Fund for Higher Education) was confirmed by Leonardo Sánchez, Costa Rica’s minister of public education. The article also stated that the base budget for 2025 was ₡576.087 billion ($1.142 billion), and that the 2026 budget would only see a 2% increase.
This increase, according to the article, is ₡11.521 billion, or $22.839 million.
When asked to verify the $73 million figure, Havas Costa Rica sent Campaign the link to a post on the Legislative Assembly’s official Instagram account, along with the English translation.
