Play Fair Campaign for Laborers’ Local 483

The problem: After a year of working as a union organizer talking to over100 government employees, I found that workers weren’t aware of the benefits of unionizing and were fearful when the prospect came up. It was clear that to get users to engage with the concept, workers needed to receive our message in a non-threatening and concise way.

The process: Our team discussed different media strategies to get the message across. We knew we wanted a friendly and accessible tone. We weighed the benefits of live interviews, an informercial, or an animation. We eventually decided to create an animation, since it would not trigger fear of ramifications for organizing, one of the main pain points we discovered in our used interviews.

For the next six months, I acted as project manager of the animation:

• I interviewed workers and community members to gather preferred terms and real stories for the script.

• I wrote a script that maintained a friendly, yet informative tone.

• I hired an illustrator and an animator and helped them manage shared assets.

• I managed publicity for the animation, getting word out to workers through social media and contacting the media through press releases.

The result: This video was shown at Portland City Hall with an audience of city commissioners, workers, and the press. Many workers felt emboldened by the video since it explained their situation clearly, without naming names. They saw their own stories in the animation and felt empowered. Three months later, nearly two-hundred workers became part of this union.

Our team decided this animation that told the stories of everyday workers in simple language was critical to the turn of public opinion and the success of our efforts.