Dalai Lama Toronto 2010: a passion for compassion
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Promoting the Dalai Lama’s 2010 visit to Toronto, was the pro-bono equivalent of a grand slam: no time + no money + 10,000 tickets to sell.
It was our dharma to do the work well. Our karma that made it work well.
Shepard Fairey (the artist famous for the Obama “Hope” poster) generously donated the rights to his portrait of the Dalai Lama which was so beautiful, we made it the lead image for the campaign.
Richard Picton, director and photographer extraordinaire, donated his own considerable gifts.
Who wrote the headline? His Holiness himself.
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The Dalai Lama Toronto 2010 campaign won a bronze Summit and bronze Marketing award for best integrated campaign at Marketing Magazines's inaugural Multicultural Advertising Awards in 2011.
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In a final media coup for humanitarianism, The Toronto Star invited the Dalai Lama to be the guest editor for the following Sunday’s front page, focusing on the theme of displaced peoples and world peace. You can see a short video of him selecting the front page he liked best here.
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The campaign was an unprecedented success despite the impossible timeline and nearly non-existent budget. The Skydome was sold out. 15,000 people attended the talk.