Our idea was nothing steals youth like the street.

Microsoft’s How-Old.net was a web-based app that used facial recognition to guess your age. Initially created to promote their cloud sharing, the site quickly took off as a worldwide social phenomenon. Within days, people everywhere were sharing their images and laughing about their “age”.

we saw a chance to move the topic to more a pressing issue - highlighting street kids and Covenant House Toronto.

As How-Old.net was blowing up, we walked the streets of downtown Toronto and photographed and interviewed real street kids.

Their images were uploaded to the How-Old.net site, and quotes from their stories were shared socially on Facebook and Twitter. Our posts told the real age (often half that reported by the site) and were an emotional reality check to the trending conversations.

From coming up with the idea, obtaining approvals, producing it and putting it in market, the timeline was 2 days.

Due to the speed of the campaign, set numbers were not established. However, our objective was to get the word out about Covenant House Toronto and the challenge street kids face.

We did that.

Popular news and tech websites across the world, in multiple languages, picked up our story and for a brief time, people realized that nothing steals youth like the streets