VML and Hogarth: BIC’s One BIC, One Book, Two Classics

To celebrate 75 years of the iconic BIC Cristal, VML and BIC Brazil brought together creativity, craft and cutting-edge tech in a campaign that imagined a literary legend through a thoroughly modern lens. “One Bic, One Book, Two Classics” paid tribute to both the timeless story of Romeo and Juliet and the pen that’s quietly helped write countless others.

The team turned to the greatest writer in the English language – William Shakespeare – to ask a simple, brilliant question: what if he’d written Romeo and Juliet with a single BIC Cristal?

To answer it, VML used a bespoke AI trained to analyse the Bard’s original handwriting, paired with a robotic arm that rewrote the entire play using one BIC Cristal Dura+ pen as part of the BIC product’s 75th year celebration in the Brazilian market. Over 20 days, the robot reproduced Shakespeare’s words – all 212 pages – with remarkable precision and style, merging old-world literature with futuristic tech.

The result was both a feat of endurance and a piece of poetic theatre. It wasn’t just a demonstration of BIC’s durability, but a love letter to writing itself – showing how one humble pen can still make a lasting mark:

• Campaign reach totalled 166.3m
• The ROI on earned media amounted to USD 442,000
• Positive sentiment reached 97%
• And in total, 202 articles landed in 13 countries

By fusing literature, technology and timeless design, “One Bic, One Book, Two Classics” celebrated 75 years of BIC in a way that felt both meaningful and magical. A smart blend of cultural relevance and brand storytelling, the campaign reminded the world that while times change, the power of the written word – and a really good pen – never goes out of style.