Change the Ref "The Unfinished Vote"

After the tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018, Manuel and Patricia Oliver launched Change the Ref in memory of their son Joaquin and his 16 peers that senselessly lost their lives. Change The Ref (CTR), was formed to empower our Future Leaders, giving young people the tools they need to be empowered to make changes to critical issues that affect our nation, through education, conversation, and activism.

With the 2020 election looming, Change the Ref has launched an initiative to encourage young people to get out the vote. “The Unfinished Votes” leverages AI technology to bring Joaquin back to life digitally to ask people to “finish” the vote he was never able to cast, as this would have marked Joaquin’s first vote in a presidential election. In the launch film for the campaign, Manuel and Patricia, alongside their late son, recruit voters to replace the ballots of gun violence victims by heading to unfinishedvotes.com.

Learn more about Unfinished Votes: http://unfinishedvotes.com/

Learn more about Change the Ref: https://changetheref.org/

Created by: McCann Health NY in Partnership with Change the Ref

Global Chief Creative Officer: Matt Eastwood

Chief Creative Officer NY: June Laffey

Executive Creative Director: Tim Jones

Group Creative Director/Copy Writer Josh Grossberg

Creative Director/Art Director: Fabio Rodrigues

Associate Creative Director/Designer: Felipe Leite

Director of Integrated Production: Ed Zazzera

Producer: Eva Pipa

Senior Project Manager: Regine LeConte

Group Account Supervisor: Warren Wyatt

PRODUCTION COMPANY: The Colony 

DIRECTOR: David Gaddie

PRODUCER: Alan Melillo

EDITORIAL COMPANY: Bandit

EDITOR: Peter Sabatino

VISUAL EFFECTS COMPANY: LightFarm

CREATIVE CONSULTANT: Framestore

COLOR GRADE: Chimney

COMPOSER: Yessian Music

MIX STUDIO: Sonic Union