Our objective was to capture the essence of the 2017 Academy Awards' Best Picture fiasco in a unique way that visually told the story, and highlighted the positive exchange between La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz and Moonlight director Barry Jenkins.
Leading up to the Oscars, we hired Julie Winegard to create an animated gif from the event. When Best Picture was wrongly awarded, it was clear this was the pivotal moment. While there were many aspects on what led to the mix up, we chose to focus on the camaraderie displayed when Horowitz handed Jenkins, his friend, the award. We felt the story could be told in three key frames and Julie quickly began illustrating the moments and animated them together.
Our Instagram post immediately over-performed with audience engagement and drew the attention of Horowitz. Twitter selected the gif as their lead moment, and the animation took on a life of its own as it continued to be RT'd and shared.