J. Walter Thompson Challenges Young People To Disconnect And Go Outdoors

What happens when the most connected generation disconnects? This was the proposal that J. Walter Thompson proposed for its Project [Dis] Connect in partnership with the Discover Outdoors Foundation (DOF), which promotes outdoor experiences for young people. This initiative worked with the J. Walter Thompson Young Commodores program, which includes students from the advertising institutes: Manhattan Early College School for Advertising (MECA), Miami Ad School and City College of New York. For 15 weeks they worked with Kirk Reynolds, Founder and Chairman of the DOF Board, and Lauren Skonieczny, Development Coordinator, Wilderness Guide & Educator of the foundation. The activity included four students who were taken to a forest and their cell phones were given to a dog. As part of this initiative, the young people delivered a one-minute film, a 30-second TV video and four short films. A video about this activity (posted on the 4A’s website) shows that the young people were underestimated, and managed to navigate without the help of Google Maps and showed that: “There is a better connection outside, take young people outdoors” as the film says at the end.