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Leo Burnett is demonstrating real potential with a new campaign for Raising the Roof, a national organization dedicated to raising awareness for the plight of Canada’s estimated 65,000 homeless youth.
The “Homeless youth have nothing, but potential” campaign broke Monday and will run for six weeks in major markets across the country. It is comprised of TV, cinema, radio, print and out-of-home advertising.
The campaign is Leo’s first work for Raising the Roof since taking on the Toronto-based organization as a pro bono client in February 2010.
The English and French creative uses everyday objects like an abandoned chair, a dried-up plant and a potato to demonstrate the power of potential.
In one 30-second TV spot, “Potential,” an abandoned chair is shown being picked up at the curb and carefully restored while supers show multiple definitions of the word “potential” and a woman reads them aloud. “If you can see potential in an abandoned chair, why not in a homeless youth?” asks the voiceover.
A series of print ads are based on Raising the Roof’s 2009 study Youth Homelessness in Canada: The Road to Solutions, which revealed that prejudice and stereotyping of homeless youth by the public is common. One print ad featuring a droopy plant is accompanied by the message “If a plant needs help, you bring it water and hope it blooms. Evidently, it’s better to be a houseplant than a homeless youth.”
Ian Westworth, an account planner with Leo Burnett in Toronto, said one of the campaign insights is that people who encounter homeless youth typically avoid them either by refusing to making eye contact or giving them a wide berth.
“We want people to see the real face of homeless youth and dispel the myth that every single homeless youth is sitting on the street begging for money,” said Westworth. “We wanted to get people to recognize that behaviour in themselves and ask them the question ‘Why don’t you see the potential in these kids?’” he said.
All of the creative drive viewers to Raising the Roof’s English and French Facebook pages, where visitors are urged to commit “an act for potential” through means such as viewing the ads, reading the report or becoming a fan of Raising the Roof.
