A :30 TV promo led people to HowToTalkAboutBFF.com, an interactive training course inspired by stereotypical human resource videos. Discounts to the festival were available upon completion.

The Brooklyn Film Festival prides itself on never censoring filmmakers, allowing them to express themselves in any way they see fit. Every year they strive to showcase a diverse range of narratives, sensibilities and arguments that explore every aspect of human reality from different points of view.

BFF is far outspent and outshined by bigger festival names. Without the big-name corporate sponsors, BFF struggles to break through to the level of notoriety those festivals enjoy. To earn BFF an outsized share of attention, this year’s campaign would have to go beyond film cliches and insider speak and tap into a wider cultural conversation that we could take a bold and uniquely Brooklyn point of view on.

We identified our target audience’s hunger for truth-telling and embraced their calls for nuance and “realness” across politics, storytelling and media. “Something to Offend Everyone” didn’t just become a tagline. It became our promise.

We created a campaign that found a fun and ironic way to invite people to keep an open mind and consider thoughts, ideas, and nuances that don’t align with their own by making fun of the very people who never do. Our out-of home campaign portrayed a series of annoyed characters expressing their anger at being offended in unexpected ways, and a :30 promo led people to HowToTalkAboutBFF.com, an interactive training course inspired by the stereotypical human resources videos we’re all required to watch every year. Our course aimed to teach prospective festival audience members how to share what they were about to see with the rest of the world without offending anyone. Unfortunately, as in real life, every scenario led to someone being offended, no matter which answer was chosen.

Brooklyn Film Festival approached our team with a relatively common objective, to earn their event an outsized share of attention. The work we created achieved that task, not only with clever and engaging creative, but with an underlying strategic message that spoke to the real values of Brooklyn Film Festival and their audience. We dove headfirst into larger underlying challenges surrounding the independent art world, media consumption, and hot button issues like censorship to deliver more than just a successful campaign, but also a point of view that BFF could own for years to come.

We wanted to bring to life the concept in a way that was purely visual, embracing the power of the medium and its simplicity. We came up with a series of characters who would always be annoyed in weird, fun ways, making fun of the very people who are most likely to be offended by the Brooklyn Film Festival’s free exchange of ideas. We worked hard to define a unique style that wasn’t anthropomorphic but felt deeply human at the same time.

The campaign increased online search for the Brooklyn Film Festival by 32%, which led to an unprecedented lift in attendance.

Ticket sales grew by 26% compared with 2021, its most attended year.

Most importantly, film submissions for the 2023 festival have seen a new high; in just three months, submissions for the 2023 BFF increased by more than 40%.

The fear of offending someone in today’s politically charged climate can lead to self-censorship, making it impossible to have open, honest conversations. How can we learn from each other if we’re not open to other opinions and ideas? That’s what this campaign is all about. If art’s raw, unadulterated honesty has become offensive, then the Brooklyn Film Festival has something to offend everyone.