A BRANDED CONTENT PIECE FOR H&M'S FOUNDATION GLOBAL HOLIDAY CAMPAIGN, IN SUPPORT OF THE REFUGEE CRISIS AFFECTING MILLIONS AROUND THE WORLD.
IN COLLABORATION WITH DIRECTOR JESSIE ENGLISH, THE H&M FOUNDATION, AND THE U.N. REFUGEE AGENCY, UNHCR.
EVERY MINUTE, 20 PEOPLE ARE FORCIBLY DISPLACED AND TODAY WE COUNT 12 MILLION REFUGEE CHILDREN.
WE PARTNERED WITH ALEK WEK,
THE SUDANESE MODEL WHOSE PERSONAL STORY MIRRORS THE REFUGEE CRISIS, AND CREATED A HOLIDAY PIECE THAT COMMUNICATES THE NEED FOR FINDING HELP FOR THOSE WHO NEED HELP IT.
In 2016, the H&M Foundation selected UNHCR as the beneficiary of its global holiday campaign, to help refugee children receive the school supplies they need. The campaign ran in some 4,000 H&M stores in 47 markets worldwide, engaging H&M employees and customers to support refugee children with a variety of school supplies including textbooks, learning material and special education services and support for children living with disabilities. For every H&M gift card sold between November 3rd and December 31st, 2016, the foundation made a donation to help UNHCR provide school supplies for refugee children in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, generating a total $3.3 million.
The video opens with a series of striking black and white close ups of Wek that manage to capture both her innate beauty, as well as a sense of her worldliness, due to a personal biography that includes her own refugee experience.
Wek's voiceover is intercut with shots of her speaking directly to the camera about her personal story and the ambitions of the H&M "Conscious" campaign to assist refugee children in getting the educational resources they desperately need.
H&M Conscious Foundation Video
