Responses by Mike Morelli, creative director, Broken Heart Love Affair.
Background: Christian relief, development and advocacy organization World Vision Canada operates in so many countries and in so many capacities that it’s hard to articulate what it does in one spot. So, we specifically built this campaign around how the organization tackles food insecurity and showing people what effect their donations have. Often, you’ll see work that comes at this from a sad angle, but our goal was to help donors see the way their contributions benefit people in need of a memorable, unexpected and, most of all, uplifting way.
Design thinking: Our goal was to show the positive effects donations have and how they can allow kids to be kids. So, to us, it just felt like such a simple solve. We wanted viewers to remember that when they donate to World Vision, people in need get full bellies, and burps are such a simple, universal sound of being full.
Challenges: The project itself came together without any unusual hiccups. Our clients loved the idea and rallied behind it; the tao/s, our directing team, were fantastic and so enthusiastic about the project; and our production team kept everything going smoothly—even with a rained-out day. Aside from getting it done in time, the only thing that really kept us up at night was wondering if it would actually turn out. In the back of our minds, we worried it might be gross and crass. But when we saw the tech scout footage and how crowds of kids came out to take turns burping for the camera, we confirmed that kids burping is just pure fun.
Favorite details: Not only are the burps real, but the reactions are real too. Those are mostly real parents reacting to the real burps of their kids. That‘s an actual teacher watching his classroom descend into uncontrollable chaos. The tao/s were so good at getting everyone loose and relaxed in front of the camera, which led to natural performances.
New lessons: We learned so much on this project that it’s hard to pin any one thing down—not just about the process and the craft, but about other cultures, about people in need and about how our client operates, too. It was eye-opening in a lot of ways, and we hope this project helps to humanize people in need who have often been portrayed as sad and helpless.
Time constraints: Time was really short on this one to the point where we weren’t 100 percent sure it was happening until we were on the plane. But when everyone is on the same page and pushing together, having less time can be a blessing. There’s no opportunity for second guessing. You learn to really trust your partners and let them make decisions.
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