He achieved this. More or less. After boasting for years that Vigo’s Christmas lights were visible from New York, Abel Caballero has effectively managed to ensure that the millions of LEDs placed throughout the Galician city can be seen from across the Atlantic. Yes, in a weird way.

The Vigo City Council has launched an aggressive advertising campaign to showcase its Christmas decorations throughout Galicia and even beyond Spain; posters were distributed in Rome, London and New York. There in the Big Apple you can already see the lights of Vigo, but not because of their brightness. ‘Miracle’ created by a dozen people mupiler spread to the streets.

“The best Christmas in the world”. For years, Vigo has boasted that they have the best Christmases in the world, “the best holidays on this planet,” in the words of mayor Abel Caballero. This year they wanted to make this clear with a major advertising campaign that crossed the borders of Galicia, Spain and even Europe. A few days ago the councilor announced that 826 posters would be hung in cities such as London, Rome and New York.

It was at this last point, in the heart of the Big Apple, that some Spaniards encountered them and were quick to convey their surprise to the net. You can see it in the photos they shared mupiler Installed at bus stations from Vigo to New York. Perhaps most of those who encounter them there do not know exactly where Vigo is, but the signs show some of the Christmas decorations, the City Council logo and a slogan with a resonant and assertive tone: “The best Christmas in the world is in Vigo, Spain.”

“I thought it was a mirage.” This statement comes from one of the Twitter users who came across Vigo Christmas posters while walking in the Big Apple. “I was seeing this from afar and couldn’t believe it,” Héctor Estepa tweeted a few days ago, along with a photo in which you can see a bus stop with the lights of Vigo and a large poster of Caballero’s slogan. Where was it found? Estepa states that it is located at the intersection of West 28th Street and Ninth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York.

He’s not the only one. They uploaded another similar photo to the Celtista account in New York, showing the same image on a tent at 5th Avenue and 33rd Street (one of the LED-lit cars the Vigo City Council is installing in 2023) and the message about Galician festivals. . Another user wrote: “The word Vigo appears seven times. Did they want to position the marquee on Google?” he jokes.

But… Why? Caballero revealed this a few days ago while presenting the advertising campaign with another. mupi Set in the heart of Vigo, this film takes the opposite perspective: How did Olympic Christmas reach cities like New York, London, Paris or Rome? The socialist councilor emphasized that his aim was “to announce the name of the city and Vigo’s Christmas to the whole world.” “This is an example of how Christmas is taking up more and more space in Vigo, which is a very important place because we want to continue to define the culture of Christmas as universal and horizontal.”

Caballero, 826 mupiler about “The best Christmas in the world” These were distributed in capital cities such as Italy, France or the United Kingdom, and a poster was displayed in a “large, very striking tower” just outside Heathrow airport, he explained. They did something similar in the Rome subway; There was another poster where Vigo boasted that his Christmas was Christmas. “The biggest in the world”. a dozen more mupiler They were distributed all over New York. And of course the list is completed by posters distributed in various cities of neighboring Portugal and other parts of Spain, including Madrid, Barcelona, ​​​​Bilbao, Malaga and Seville.

semi new. The great news about the 2024 Vigo Christmas campaign is that its ads are crossing the pond into New York, but this isn’t the first time the Galician city has boasted about its festivities beyond Galicia. Or even Spain. Last year, without going any further, the Galicia City Council had done something similar with posters distributed in Aveiro, Florence and Paris, among other spots where it aimed to attract visitors.

The numbers show that the efforts are not going badly at all. At least according to data obtained by Caballero himself, who claims that Christmas attracts more than five million visitors to Vigo. For reference, according to official data from INE, Vigo has no 295,000 residents.

Of course, these figures do not come free to the City Council, which signed a 9.4 million contract with the Ximenez lighting company for the campaigns between 2023-2024 and 2026-2027. This means a bill of 8 euros per person. . However, the same week, Caballero assured Antena3 that the promotion in London or New York, eagerly announced on the eve of the illuminations, “will not cost us anything.”

The War on Christmas is heating up. It is curious that Vigo puts up posters announcing Christmas in the heart of Manhattan, at the exit of London’s largest airport, or in the Rome subway, but this is the tenth indication of a phenomenon that goes beyond the Galician city: how the “War” took place. Christmas lights dazzle several Spanish towns.

At least since 2018, when Caballero starred in a media press conference in Vigo that launched the viral Christmas phenomenon, many municipalities in the country have launched a race to distribute the largest investment or quantity of LED lights. Everything to showcase the best Christmas among visitors.

In Vigo… and beyond. There is no need to go back very far in the newspaper archive to see this. In Badalona they have already declared the “largest Christmas tree in Spain”, and Cádiz has surprised with its remarkable investment in Christmas decorations, surpassing even Vigo in the ranking of investment per neighbor in lighting.

Added to these latest news are challenges in a more or less casual tone among mayors such as Caballero, Almeida or Albiol, who do not hesitate to participate in the exaggerated rhetoric that characterized last year’s no less exaggerated “war of the lights”. “: “If Vigo has the largest Christmas tree in the world, the one in Badalona has the largest in the universe.”

For now, Caballero has reached a milestone: Vigo’s Christmas lights can be seen in New York… mupiyes really.

Pictures | Council of Vigo and Fabien Bazanegue (Unsplash)

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