Temple’s advertising capstone project presented a unique challenge: pitching a complete advertising campaign proposal to United Way of Greater Philadelphia, which would hand-select one winner. Forming small collective “ad agencies”, my group and I decided to highlight United Way’s mission to help local communities by humanizing those who are in poverty.

Curtain Call was a series of videos we pitched that would have everyday Philadelphia residents engage in a blind conversation with an individual struggling with poverty. Issues such as financial insecurity struggle with negative stigma surrounding them, leading to these problems often getting overlooked. Our answer to that problem was to help the locals understand the struggles of those in poverty, as they could be a neighbor, cousin, or even a potential friend. Curtain Call would take to all of United Way’s social platforms, where Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube would host the main content of our campaign, supported by digital advertising and out-of-home.