Diego Cardoso de Oliveira, his wife Matilde Ramos Pinto, and their two young boys Joaquim and Cauê,
were tragically killed after being run over by a car while waiting at a bus stop in San Francisco.

His passing will be a huge loss to the advertising industry.
Diego would never admit it, nor agree with it, but he was “big times.”

He was a rare talent and worked for some of the best agencies and brands in the world: Agência Click,
Africa and Almap BBDO in São Paulo; BBH, Mother and AMV BBDO in London and Apple Inc in California.

To give you an idea of how talented he was, BBH hired him in London despite the fact that he couldn’t speak a word of English. Sir John Hegarty said that it was easier to teach Diego English than finding someone who could think like him.

He was chosen as a young lion twice, once representing Brazil and once the UK. He sent people to space, got Shakespeare and IKEA in bed together, broke taboos around periods, made a vulva lip-sync music video and many more things.

Diego won everything that there is to be won a couple of times over but wouldn’t get stuck on it. He would celebrate, then give the award away to someone involved in the project the next day and immediately tell everyone “move on, move on”.

However, what was truly remarkable about him was not what he did but how he did things.

Diego didn’t care about titles, positions, and hated politics. He had heart, balls and an insane amount of positivity. He was a great lateral thinker; he could see the big picture but was all over the tiny stuff.

Despite having extreme high standards, Diego pushed people in a way that made him loved. He demanded better of himself, of myself, his work colleagues, and even the clients. More than once Diego offered to cover part of the production costs so the work could be the absolute best it could be.  

He was always fun to be around. Even when shit hit the fan, he lifted the room and helped everyone find light.
He was genuine with people and generous with his time. He improved everything he touched and everyone he spent time with.

Diego was like a brother to me. I will miss him deeply and I believe the industry will too. We should have more Diegos around. Sadly, the only one we had, left us too early.

I know his life was cut short, but what a life he lived. It was filled with love, parties, friends, music, trips, babies. Whatever you can think of, he did it.

Diego lived intensely. He was passionate about creativity, absolutely adored and loved his wife and kids. He would probably say their life was HD, high definition, 4K.

And to that I can only say:  Yeah buddy.

♥️

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