• by Danielle Oster , December 17, 2024

There’s a lack of empathy in the world right now, according to creative agency Public Inc. Back in 2020, the purpose-focused shop began an annual tradition of replacing holiday card videos with videos highlighting a cause.

“Empathy has gone down over the decades as we've grown more disconnected,” Public Inc. founder and CEO Phil Haid told Marketing Daily.

“A lack of empathy is undermining our ability to get along with one another, to have productive conversations, regardless of where you are on the political spectrum,” he said, adding that the issue was illustrated by everything from the vitriol of certain billionaires on social media, to far-right attacks on corporate DEI initiatives. 

To raise awareness of the issue, the shop collaborated on the video “It Takes a Child To Raise a Village” with Roots of Empathy, a Toronto-based organization working to help develop empathy and emotional intelligence  in students.

“We came up with [a creative concept based around the idea that] kids have empathy, but society reduces it over time because of what they’re experiencing and growing with,” Haid said, with the intention of exploring the issue from “an incredibly nonjudgemental place.” The video echoed the style of the classic poem “The Night Before Christmas,” contrasted with the residents of a miniature Christmas village engaging in decidedly antisocial behavior.

In the spot, running on Public Inc. and Roots of Empathy’s social channels through Jan. 1, figures are shown preoccupied with their phones, shouting at each other, engaging in acts of vandalism,and otherwise displaying a lack of care for others. The voiceover delivers the message “They had no patience. They put themselves first. There was so little empathy left on this earth.” In the last third of the spot, the tone changes with the lines “But all is not lost, we see hope up ahead. The next generation can help kindness spread,” before delivering a call for action driving donations to Roots of Empathy.

The timing of the spot rested on the assumption that people would be more receptive to a message for empathy during the holiday season, when the majority of charitable giving happens. “This is the time of year where people generally display empathy,” Haid said. “If you're not going to be open to [that message] during the holidays, then we're really lost as a society.”

Haid is under no illusions that the issue can be solved with a 90-second video, though. “It's a little intervention at a time of year when people are a little more open to it,” he said, while hopefully sparking “a conversation where people are reflecting on this issue.”

The creation of the campaign involved a group of pro bono partners pitching in to bring the project to life. Public Inc. initially planned to create the spot by filming miniature villages and characters on camera, but the scale of the miniatures made that impossible. Instead it was created using 3D-scanning technology from Objex Unlimited and Little Canada, allowing them to insert the miniatures into virtual environments, as well as scanning “real-life volunteers, the agency’s staff, and people connected to Roots of Empathy’s work” into scenes.

“This campaign has been an exercise in empathy itself,” Haid said, citing such contributions, as well as support from individual volunteers and other partner organizations, including: Darling VFX, Pirate Sound, StylePhotos Studios Inc. and Hope’s Clover Farms, which allowed its sizable Christmas village collection to be used in the effort.