Life Needs Truth: Kim Gehrig Helms Brilliant, Chaotic NY Times Ad via Droga5

Droga5 has launched ‘Life Needs Truth’, a new campaign for the New York Times that looks to show its journalism as part of the fabric of life and the issues of our time - how it can guide us every day, from daily news to podcasts, opinions to cooking, technology to home. The campaign, which is a new iteration of the the newspaper's incredible The Truth Is Worth It campaign, has been brought to life by Somesuch director Kim Gehrig. 

Life itself has come into sharp focus - understanding the world and having the correct facts and the right information have never been more essential than now. The truth can help guide people through life, help people see and help people learn to understand and navigate the current world. Now is the time when the power of good, quality, independent journalism is needed the most. It's this insight that led Droga5 to the ‘Life Needs Truth’ work, which looks to show New York Times journalism as part of the fabric of life and the issues of the current time - how it can guide us everyday, from daily news to podcasts, opinions to cooking, technology to home. The work looks to capture the current time in America through the lens of Times reporting - it responds to the idea that, in times like these, we all need journalism to help us process the world.

The film work is a poem about life crafted from Times journalism and structured over five verses. Built with words lifted from New York Times reporting, the headlines come together to rhythmically tell the story of the time we are living in. Set to the sound of Makaya McCraven’s jazz, his music, combined with the sound of typing, looks to put the infectious rhythm, cadence and rhyme structure of the writing and the story in the viewer’s head. 

As these images, words and sound come together, Droga5 and Kim have captured the energy and breadth of Times reporting and make people feel how, for every part of our chaotic and upended lives, there is a piece of journalism to help bring clarity and guidance to it.