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•  The Story

We didn't have much growing up. But I never went hungry. I always had a roof over my head and I was always surrounded by people who loved me. Quite the contrast to the couple of thousand homeless people currently living on the streets of Vancouver.

I know how quickly life's fortunes can change and how easy it is to end up in a situation in which your world falls apart. Whether it's through addiction, mental illness, an accident, or other unforeseen circumstances out of your control. Homelessness has always been a profoundly personal cause for me, so I was honoured to be asked to lead the creative for Gratitude Week. A grass-roots initiative designed to engage ordinary citizens in the fight against homelessness.

My concept centered around the familiar cardboard signs you are usually confronted with on downtown streets. Most of us have become immune to their messages and automatically dismiss the people holding them. But by turning the messages around and showing what many of us can truly be grateful for in our lives, it really highlighted the fundamental securities most of us take for granted every day.

In addition to the commercial, that was also included for selection at the Vancouver International Film Festival, we had several ambient strategies for inspiring citizen involvement. A street campaign of grateful messages greeted commuters on their way to work and the installation of a Gratitude Wall, where anyone could write and post their own messages of gratitude was erected and filled before the week was over.

The campaign positively inspired people to get involved in a way unlike anything seen before. Support for the campaign was not limited to just Vancouver however, as the organization received donations and accolades from as far away as California, Germany and Australia.