Virgin Unite
The War On Drugs
An acentric billionaire with a request to “Find a way to start the conversation about the war on drugs,” a top tier advertising agency, a worldwide competition to solve that problem, my amazing unicorn team that won the whole thing… and the opportunity to pitch the whole thing to Richard Branson (and a room full of top thinkers & leaders from around the world).
Platforms
Outdoor & Digital
Deliverables
Physical Experience, Digital Forum, Live Prototypes
Tackling this creative brief and putting it out there to a global competition (and actually winning) was an incredible experience in problem solving and a good exercise in understanding human habits.
Richard Branson’s son just finished a documentary on the war on drugs “Breaking the Taboo” which covers the last 50 years and its aftermath as a total and complete abject failure. Find a way to turn this taboo into something people can talk about. If we can at least get to that point, it will pave the way for possible solutions.
People have a lot to say, in online forums and in private about the war on drugs, but never in public. Anonymity plays a big role in this conversation—bring it out into the open, literally. Create giant blank walls and invite people to leave a message for their community to see—let others know what they think about the effect of this war on their community.
Our concept was simple, but effective to kicking off the war on drugs conversation. We then took it one step further and created a prototype. This is what gave us the edge to win the global competition.
Timeline of project & presentation
There were several stakeholders in this competition. Many stakeholders & collaborative efforts with in the works even before we received our creative brief.
C2-MTL presentation video
The main video I developed with the amazing agency SID LEE to serve up the winning ideas.
Pitch presentation part 1 - video presentation
Our primary pitch video / proof of concept, pitch to the creative brief to start the conversation about the war on drugs.
Pitch presentation part 2 - proof of concept
Our video that includes footage from our live (and technically illegal) prototype to prove this idea could work.
Pitch site for YoungGlory + SID LEE
The site we built as our makeshift slide deck (since the competition was judged online, teams were asked to present in this medium).
Staging shots
We had worked with SID LEE over the month leading up to C2-MTL to co-op our idea into a full 360 live installation.
Award + presentation
Shots from being on stage with SID LEE and presenting to Richard Branson.
Results
1st Place YoungGlory competition
Concept handed off to Virgin Unite to implement
Prototype successfully executed @ C2-MTL
One impressed billionaire
Additional Details
My Roles:
Art Direction, Strategy, Motion Design/Graphics, Visual Design, Post-Production
Credits:
Art Direction: Tim O’Connell, Rahul Sawant
Copywriting: Tim Murakami
Strategy: Dudley Duberry