2022 Winner

To raise awareness of the fashion industry’s ties to Uyghur forced labour camps in Xinjiang, China, the Human Rights Foundation worked with Taxi to create “Uncomfortable Truth” – a campaign that capitalized on the excitement that surrounded Yeezy X Gap’s apparel launch in NYC. The hyped clothing launch consisted of a single image – no text, names or logos – showing the blue puffer jacket designed by Yeezy for Gap alongside a QR code, with the product selling out within hours.

Knowing fans were anticipating the next drop, the Foundation acted fast to put up posters mimicking the style, and replaced the blue jacket with a blue prison jumpsuit worn by Uyghurs in captivity. When someone scanned the QR code, they were provided information on the crisis and ways to act. The campaign saw a 631% spike in visits to the Foundation’s website within 72 hours, over 91,000 social media impressions and upwards of 7.15 million earned media impressions. Reddit users also speculated on the new item, inadvertently creating additional hype.

Credits

TAXI
Alexis Bronstorph, Chief Creative Officer
Kelsey Horne, Chief Creative Officer
James Sadler, Executive Creative Director
Michael Houldsworth, Creative Director / Writer
Dom Desmond, Art Director
Tasha Thomas, Art Director
Lizzie Dabous, Strategy Director
Tim Pelz, Director of Product Operations
Emily Kozniuk, Group Account Director
Ruan van Gend, Account Director

STRATLAB
Connor Brezinsky, Developer
Jeph Maystruck, Project Manager

Human Rights Foundation
Céline Assaf-Boustani, President
Mariana Bernardez, Creative Director
Jenny Wang, Senior Strategy & Research Associate