#BeGolden, created by Richards/Lerma in April 2018, is a United States public interest campaign using the Golden Rule to counter anti-immigrant rhetoric in
ARCHIVEHow Richards/Lerma Built the #BeGolden Movement Around Immigrant Inclusion
The #BeGolden campaign is a United States public interest initiative created by Richards/Lerma in April 2018 to counter hostile rhetoric toward immigrants by anchoring community outreach in the universally understood principle of the Golden Rule, deploying integrated media across Dallas and North Texas with civic, religious, and corporate backing.
Richards/Lerma launched #BeGolden in April 2018 on behalf of Bishop Edward Burns and the Diocese of Dallas. The campaign did not originate from a commercial brand but from an alliance of civic institutions determined to shift the cultural temperature around immigration in North Texas. Bishop Burns and Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings served as key originators, joined by Catholic Charities, Belo Corporation, The Dallas Morning News, and a coalition of religious and business leaders, as documented by cmsny.org and adsoftheworld.com. That coalition gave #BeGolden institutional depth rarely seen in local public service work.
The campaign's central mechanic was deceptively simple: invite residents of the United States to treat immigrants as they themselves would want to be treated. In practice, #BeGolden operated as an integrated campaign combining documentary content, a social experiment format, outdoor media, digital platforms, and community outreach activations across the Dallas market. The April 2018 launch was marked by the Dallas skyline being lit gold, a visual declaration that generated thousands of media, social, and digital impressions across North Texas, according to adsoftheworld.com. Belo Corporation committed one year of print and digital advertising valued at approximately $250,000, according to cmsny.org, underwriting the campaign's sustained presence in local media. With a Clapboard Score of 63 out of 100, #BeGolden represents a campaign that achieves meaningful civic resonance through coalition-building and a clear moral framework, even as its production scale remains locally concentrated.
Richards/Lerma grounded #BeGolden in a consumer insight that transcended politics. The agency recognised that in a polarised public environment, moral universalism offered a more durable entry point than policy argument or demographic data. The Golden Rule carries authority across religious traditions, cultural backgrounds, and political identities, making it the strategic lever most likely to reach audiences resistant to conventional immigration advocacy.
The geographic context sharpened that strategy considerably. Dallas's immigrant population represented approximately 25 percent of the local population at the time of the 2018 launch, according to cmsny.org, making North Texas one of the most consequential markets in the United States for a campaign of this kind. That demographic reality meant #BeGolden was not addressing an abstraction but an immediate civic challenge visible in neighbourhoods, schools, and workplaces across the Dallas market.
The competitive landscape for public interest campaigns in the United States in 2018 included the Ad Council's Because of You initiative, which launched the same year to help young people understand how words and actions affect others, as reported by Little Black Book. While Because of You operated at a national scale with established Ad Council distribution infrastructure, #BeGolden concentrated its resources locally and pursued deeper institutional anchoring through the Diocese of Dallas, city government, and corporate media partners rather than broad national reach. A second relevant comparison is Define American, a national media and culture organisation working on immigration narrative — a campaign peer that relied primarily on storytelling and digital community building rather than the civic coalition model Richards/Lerma assembled for #BeGolden. The agency's choice to embed the campaign inside Dallas's existing institutional relationships gave it an authenticity and durability that purely media-driven public interest work often lacks.
Richards/Lerma built the #BeGolden creative execution around documentary and social experiment formats, two modes that place observed human behaviour at the centre of the narrative rather than scripted persuasion. The approach reflects a clear creative thesis: that the most compelling argument for immigrant inclusion in the United States is witnessing real people apply the Golden Rule in uncontrolled conditions.
The integrated campaign contained a single primary media asset as documented on clapboard.com and adsoftheworld.com, a discipline that forced the creative team to make that asset carry the full weight of the campaign's emotional and strategic ambitions. The social experiment format invited participants to encounter situations designed to surface empathy, with the documentary lens capturing reactions that scripted content cannot manufacture. That combination of formats gave #BeGolden its credibility as public interest communication rather than advocacy advertising.
The creative team assembled by Richards/Lerma for the 2018 campaign was extensive. Creative direction was shared by Aldo Quevedo, Rodrigo Maycotte, Florencia Leibaschoff, and Victor Garcia-Hoz, according to adsoftheworld.com. Art direction was handled by Lucho Sanchez, Devin Edwards, Ruth Lovati, and Amanda Archey. Copywriting was led by Sam Malone, Carlos Castro, Matt Villanueva, and Madeleine Glenski. Content production was managed by Paolo Linares, with producers Matias Sada, Kelsey Acosta, and Cesar Jasso overseeing physical production. Brand management was led by Val De Fex and Vanessa Romero, while strategic and brand planning was directed by Shannon Rubio and Cindy Almonte. Social strategy was executed by Francisco Cardenas and Ovidio Hinojosa, as documented by adsoftheworld.com and clapboard.com. The breadth of the team reflects the integrated ambition of the work, spanning broadcast-quality documentary production, social platform strategy, and community outreach simultaneously.
ARCHIVEThe #BeGolden campaign generated more than 350,000 impressions and nearly 15,000 video views across its website and social channels by March 2019, according to cmsny.org. Those figures reflect a campaign operating at a concentrated local scale in the Dallas market rather than pursuing national reach, and they should be understood in that context. For a civic coalition campaign anchored in North Texas and reliant on earned media and donated inventory rather than paid national distribution, sustained engagement through nearly a full year after the April 2018 launch signals genuine community resonance.
The American Advertising Federation awarded #BeGolden a Silver award in its 2019 American Advertising Awards competition at the local AAF level, as reported by aaf10.org. Rodrigo Maycotte's portfolio additionally lists a 2019 Silver MOSAIC Award for the campaign, though independent verification of the category and awarding body was not confirmed at the time of writing. No verified recognition from Cannes Lions, the Effie Awards, the One Show, D&AD, the Clio Awards, the Webby Awards, or WARC has been documented for this campaign, according to clapboard.com.
Structurally, the campaign's most durable impact may be institutional rather than measurable in conventional media metrics. The alignment of the Diocese of Dallas, the Mayor's Office, Catholic Charities, Belo Corporation, and The Dallas Morning News around a single public interest message created a civic platform for immigrant inclusion in the United States that outlasted a single news cycle. The Golden Rule framing gave the campaign a vocabulary that community outreach partners could continue using independently of any media spend.
The #BeGolden campaign is a United States public interest initiative launched in April 2018 by Richards/Lerma. It was commissioned by Bishop Edward Burns and the Diocese of Dallas to counter anti-immigrant rhetoric by applying the Golden Rule. Civic partners including Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, Catholic Charities, Belo Corporation, and The Dallas Morning News supported the campaign's launch and media distribution.
Richards/Lerma anchored #BeGolden in the universally recognised Golden Rule as a moral framework for community outreach. The strategy used the Golden Rule because it transcends political and cultural divides. Dallas's immigrant population represented approximately 25 percent of the local population at launch, according to cmsny.org, giving the campaign immediate local relevance across North Texas.
Richards/Lerma built #BeGolden around documentary and social experiment formats. The integrated campaign centred on a single primary media asset, as documented on clapboard.com and adsoftheworld.com. The documentary and social experiment approach placed observed human behaviour at the narrative centre, lending the public interest campaign credibility that scripted persuasion formats typically cannot achieve.
The #BeGolden campaign won a Silver award at the 2019 American Advertising Awards in the local AAF competition, as reported by aaf10.org. Rodrigo Maycotte's portfolio also lists a 2019 Silver MOSAIC Award for the campaign, though independent verification was not confirmed. No recognition from Cannes Lions, the Effies, One Show, D&AD, or Clios has been documented.
By March 2019, #BeGolden had generated more than 350,000 impressions and nearly 15,000 video views across its website and social channels, according to cmsny.org. Belo Corporation supported distribution by providing one year of print and digital advertising valued at approximately $250,000, according to cmsny.org, sustaining the campaign's presence across the Dallas market through its first year.
The #BeGolden campaign at Richards/Lerma was led by four creative directors: Aldo Quevedo, Rodrigo Maycotte, Florencia Leibaschoff, and Victor Garcia-Hoz, as documented by adsoftheworld.com and clapboard.com. Strategic planning was directed by Shannon Rubio and Cindy Almonte, while social strategy was executed by Francisco Cardenas and Ovidio Hinojosa across the 2018 United States campaign.
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