The One Love Foundation is a nonprofit on a mission to end intimate partner violence. They asked TBWA\Chiat\Day New York to create a campaign for Valentine’s Day that would start a conversation about the differences between healthy and unhealthy relationships. Our idea was to turn the most traditional and least inspiring Valentine’s Day gift — a box of chocolates — into an unexpected lesson in love.
Executive Creative Director Al Merry and my partner Mike Blanch and I spent two months working with a chocolatier to create eight original flavors inspired by healthy and unhealthy behaviors. The flavors that represented good behaviors tasted delicious; the flavors that represented bad behaviors tasted intentionally unpleasant.
Our design team, headed by Senior Designer Alex Lumain, created custom eight-piece chocolate boxes, and I worked with Alex to make a flavor guide that led people through the experience.
One Love gave away the limited-edition boxes to their social followers on Valentine’s Day. To tease the campaign and drive traffic to the contest, we made :15 ads that played on TV and in preroll and paid social posts.
Our campaign generated over 93 million PR impressions, 34 million digital ad impressions and 4 million social media impressions. One Love’s celebrity spokesperson, Camilla Belle, went on morning shows and did taste tests. In what was perhaps our strongest endorsement, one of our flavors – “Sabotage” – made an anchor do a spit-take on live TV. If that’s not success, I don’t know what is.