Meet the Team Behind OREO's 'Proud Parent'

Every year, the Effie Awards celebrate the global advertising industry's most effective advertising efforts. The Effie Awards are known by advertisers and agencies globally as the preeminent award in the industry. We are excited to share that our “Proud Parent” film for OREO won a Silver at the 2021 Effie Awards in the Positive Change - Social Good/Brands category.  

To celebrate our accomplishment, we asked the people behind the work to explain why this project was meaningful to them.  

Michael LaVallee, integrated brand strategist: "My favourite part about working on Proud Parent was creating something meaningful for a community that I am involved in. The core insight of the campaign spoke on how the coming out process can sometimes put a loved one inside of another closet. As a member of the LGBTQ community, coming out was one of the most difficult, confusing, empowering and isolating moments of my life. Most of my family and friends didn't know what it meant that I was coming out as gay and so they didn't know how to support me which created a rift in our relationships. The Proud Parent campaign is all about how love and acceptance can bridge that rift and inspires others to make the move to do so for the LGBTQ person in their life. For me, putting a piece of work like that out into the world for my community meant everything."

Joshua Safran, VP, account management: "The teamwork and collaboration that went into this between the agency, Oreo team, PFLAG, and all of our production partners. Felt like we all had the same goals and love for this project along the way."

Raig Adolfo, chief strategy officer: "My favorite part of this whole project is the undeniable emotions it sparks - from the start, you kind of can't help but tear up a little. And as a strategist, this is fascinating because this level of empathy and humanity came from the visceral human tension we found and how we articulated it to drive the work." 

Carly Salaman, executive producer: "The teamwork...Everyone who touched this project truly gave it their all to make a beautiful and meaningful film."

Kushal Birari, art director: "The OREO Proud Parent project gave me an opportunity to address the sensitive topic of sexuality and play my bit in making the LGBTQ+ community gain acceptance in our society. Working with the talent from the same community made it special and the overwhelming responses received from the audience for this campaign was a big reward."

Huge congratulations to our hardworking team at 360i and our forward-thinking clients who make the magic happen.