Jersey Shore was the biggest show on MTV. We made the opposite.

I'd moved to Washington Heights and fell in love with it — one of the last genuinely alive neighborhoods in Manhattan. Families on stoops, music everywhere, first-generation Dominican-Americans with real ambitions and real stakes. The only version of this community that ever appeared in the news was crime and drugs. We wanted to show what it actually looked like.

We shot the whole series on Canon DSLRs in natural light, at a time when every other reality show was slick and staged. Spanish dialogue and Spanish-language music ran throughout — rare on mainstream American TV at the time. The New York Times called it elegant and genuine. The cast was commended by their local congressman for how they represented their community.

It grew to 900,000 weekly viewers. It changed how the genre was made.

An OOH/transit campaign introduces the cast and a mobile app gives users a GPS guided walking tour of Washington Heights, narrated by fan favorite, Ludwin.