La Llorona Got Milk? Ad One-Sheet | Illustrator, Photoshop
This one sheet piece promotes an Art Center student designed, nationally-aired commercial for promoting the consumption of a lactose-laced, udder-disharged viscous beverage. Art Center students Jose Rennard, Tania Sosa-Lanz, David Delgado, and Ali Alvarez developed the project around the Mexican myth of La Llorona to appeal to appeal to Latino teens. The commercial was directed by Oscar-nominated Mexican cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki. The design features screen captures from a behind the scenes video supplied to the school.

Client: ACCD Public Relations

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The Legend of La Llorona

The legend of La Llorona, Spanish for the Weeping Woman, has been a part of Hispanic culture in the Southwest since the days of the conquistadors. Her spirit is said to be blessed with natural beauty and long flowing black hair. Wearing a white gown, she roams the rivers wailing into the night and searching for her drowned children.
 
In one version of the myth, La Llorona (christened "Maria") was born to a peasant family in a humble village. Her startling beauty captured the attention of both rich and the poor men. She spent her days in peasant surroundings, but in the evenings she would wear her best white gown and go out to thrill the men in the local fandangos.  However, La Llorona had two young sons that made it difficult for her to spend her evenings out, and often she left them alone while she cavorted. One day the two small boys were found drowned in the river. Some say they drowned through her neglect; others say they died by her own hand.

Another legend says that La Llorona married a wealthy man who lavished her with gifts and attention. However, after she bore him two sons he began to change, returning to a life of womanizing and alcohol, and often leaving her for months at a time. He seemingly no longer cared for the beautiful Maria, even talking about leaving her to marry a woman of his own wealthy class. When he did return home, it was only to visit his children. Maria began to feel resentment toward the boys. One evening, as Maria was strolling with her two children on a shady pathway near the river, her husband came by in a carriage with a lady beside him. He stopped and spoke to his children but ignored his wife and drove away. Maria went into a terrible rage, and threw her children into the river. As they disappeared downstream, she realized what she had done and ran down the bank to save them. By then it was too late.

In either version, La Llorona mourned the loss of her sons. She would not eat and became very thin. She searched the riverbanks for them, hoping they would return. Her once white dress became soiled and tattered, and she was exhausted from crying. Eventually she died. Not long after, her restless spirit appeared, walking the banks of the Santa Fe River when darkness fell. She is said to be seen drifting between the trees along the shoreline or floating on the current with her long white gown spread out upon the water. Her weeping and wailing became a curse of the night and people began to be afraid to go out. People began to call her La Llorona, the Weeping Woman. Children are warned not to go out in the dark, for this restless spirit might throw them to their deaths in the flowing waters.