I know all too well how quickly life’s fortunes can change, and how easy it is to end up in a situation where your world falls apart.

The Story

Where did you sleep last night?

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 typically 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 highlighted the fundamental securities most of us take for granted every day.

In addition to the commercial, that played at the Vancouver International Film Festival, we had several guerrilla strategies to engage involvement. A street campaign of grateful messages greeted somewhat confused commuters on their way to work one Monday morning. This coincided with the installation of a Gratitude Wall in downtown Vancouver where anyone could come up post their own messages. This proved particularly effective and was completely filled in less than a week.

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