The Pain and Triumph of Change the Ref's 'Unfinished Votes'

“This idea was probably the craziest idea I’ve ever been pitched … trying to re-create our son,” says Manuel Oliver, father of Parkland shooting victim Joaquin Oliver and co-founder and creative director of Change the Ref. “The process was very hard. We had to see our son speaking, knowing he is not here.”

As painful as it was to produce, Change the Ref’s “The Unfinished Votes” was a remarkable, breakthrough piece of creative in the fight against gun violence. Manuel and his wife Patricia have been amazingly resourceful and creative in helping Joaquin become a posthumous advocate for the cause, and “Unfinished Votes,” in winning a dozen Clios, earned Change the Ref the honor of Clio Health’s Advertiser of the Year for 2020-2021.

In the video above, Manuel talks more about the campaign and gun violence generally as a public health crisis. Below, see the “Unfinished Votes” case study. And to see all of the 2020-2021 Clio Health winners, visit Clios.com.

Change the Ref, ‘The Unfinished Votes’