Naughty or nice – WOW

This is for me the best christmas ad this year and it comes from the National Alliance on Mental Illness and was created by Wieden & Kennedy New York.

If suffering through middle school proves anything, it’s that kids take labels very seriously. Jock, nerd, loser, poser, class clown, troublemaker—they stick, and kids often adopt them as part of their personas.

So why is it that, every Christmas, millions of kids get labeled either “nice” or “naughty,” rather than something less reductive? After a few centuries of dishing out coal, that sobering thought occurs to Santa Claus himself in an introspective PSA from the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Perched on a lonely rooftop, Kringle shivers as he considers the inadvertent damage he’s done over the years. He ponders alternative labels, like “nervous or nice” or “uncomfortable in my own skin or nice” that would be easier on the 10 million kids in the country living with mental health conditions.

The spot from Wieden & Kennedy New York is directed pro bono by David Shane via O Positive, with Arcade Edit donating time to the project, as well.