This National Women's Law Center campaign uses fearless comedy to expose pay inequality for National Women's Law Center— Clapboard's Global Ad Archive.
The Florida Man Project - Big Brothers Big Sisters | Clapboard Ad Archive
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay’s 2017 effort, The Florida Man Project, is a rare inversion of the clickbait trap, leveraging the viral recognition of Florida Man memes to redirect attention toward mentorship with inventive precision. Conceived by agency 22Squared for the public service sector, this digital campaign hijacks the familiar cadence and energy of Florida Man headlines—stories notorious for their chaotic tone and viral pull—then transforms them into doorways to Big Brothers Big Sisters’ mission. Across platforms and formats, users scrolling for the latest wild Florida Man misadventure encounter convincingly parodic headlines—crafted to fit in seamlessly among trending stories—only to be confronted, post-click, with a positive, well-pitched ask to consider becoming a mentor. This is neither self-righteous do-goodery nor dry PSA: the core creative leverages every trick in the clickbait playbook, from sensational phrasing to image teasers, but uses them in service of subverting audience expectations and reframing a popular internet trope from ridicule to responsibility. The campaign further capitalizes on real-time social conversation by targeting comment threads under viral Florida Man posts, inserting custom replies with links to BBBS, and utilizing geo-targeted, donated native content to maximize reach among Tampa Bay’s men—exactly those likeliest to become mentors. Clapboard’s taxonomy would classify this as FORMAT#12—Parody or Borrowed Format—an approach that not only adapts but lampoons the common visual and linguistic cues of tabloid and viral news, creating an authenticity almost indistinguishable from the meme it exploits. The video asset titled Florida man and boy struck by lightning!!! Caught on phone! is emblematic of the strategy: it mimics wild headline conventions before revealing a twist, landing users in a rewarding, fact-based narrative about positive mentorship. By reframing clickbait as a force for social good, The Florida Man Project underscores the power of pop culture borrowing in public interest communications and demonstrates how creative risk-taking can turn low trust marketing mechanisms into credible calls to action. The campaign earns 67/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. For an industry often weighed down by worthy-but-dull calls to action, this campaign signals how irreverent brand storytelling and native formats can unlock genuine engagement for social impact when harnessed with a blend of audacity and insight.
.webp)
