Challenge

In 2009, Uruguay became the first country in the world to fully implement the One Laptop per Child initiative, giving one laptop to every primary school student (350,000 kids and 16,000 teachers received a laptop)

Before its full implementation, parents and teachers were skeptical of incorportating laptops into the classroom.

Goal

Educate Uruguayans about the benefits of the program and how technology in the classroom empowers students, teachers and parents.

Approach

I was hired to produce the ad campaign. I oversaw the production working closely with the Uruguayan government, ad agency and film crew.

The agency and the director had in mind a piece that felt like a documentary, able to capture raw autenticity, the excitement of the children and their parents, and how this new initiative was changing kids lives inside and outside the classroom.

To achieve this I traveled around the country looking for children (one girl and one boy) and scouting schools. The challenge was to find real kids with parents amenable to the project and schools willing to work with us. So many variables had to line up in order to make sure we were able to tell the story the way the agency intended: to make it look and feel as real as possible.

After a month of casting we found Valentino & Camila. We were able to follow them during an entire day at school, with their classmates, and at their homes with their parents.

Oscar-winning singer/songwriter Jorge Drexler composed a song for the ad that worked beautifully with the images captured.

Results

The campaign won the hearts of many Uruguayans that were skeptical of the introduction of digital technologies into the classroom.