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 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 this 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 The Unfinished Votes website.

McCann Health NY in partnership with Change the Ref created the initiative. Titled “The Unfinished Vote,” the launch film was directed by David Gaddie of The Colony.

Credits

Client Change the Ref Agency McCann Health NY Matt Eastwood, global chief creative officer; June Laffey, chief creative officer, NY; Tim Jones, executive creative director; Josh Grossberg, group creative director/copywriter; Fabio Rodrigues, creative director/art director; Felipe Leite, associate creative director/designer; Ed Zazzera, director of integrated production; Eva Pipa, producer; Regine LeConte, sr. project manager; Warren Wyatt, group account supervisor. Production The Colony David Gaddie, director; Alan Melillo, producer. Editorial Bandit Peter Sabatino, editor. VFX LightFarm  Creative Consultant Framestore Color Grade Chimney Music Yessian Music Audio Post Sonic Union

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