Albertson Foundation: Buck the Quo
A statewide campaign to lift Idaho's go-on rate by talking with teens, not at them. Disguised as a retail popup, I challenged teens' limiting beliefs and self-doubt. DJ started agency side, shot the photos, directed the videos, and ended up a field mentor and consultant. 18,000+ conversations with Idaho teens, 2015 to 2018.
Rockie Awards · every category won · Best of Show
Stop wagging the finger.
46%of Idaho grads went on after high school. One of the lowest rates in the country.
A statewide campaign to lift Idaho's college-going rate by talking with teens instead of at them. DJ shot the campaign and worked the experiential build that turned a hard conversation about the future into one that happened 18,000+ times between 2015 and 2018.
The usual fix is an adult telling a teen what they should do. The campaign had a name for those people: They Sayers. Nobody listens to a They Sayer.
So Buck the Quo did the opposite. It talked to the teens themselves, not their parents, not their teachers, and treated them like the people actually making the decision. The brand had to feel like theirs before it could change a single mind.
Play · Highlights ✳ Hella Bright Highlights · Buck the Quo 
Play · On Tour ✳ Buck the Quo On Tour Meet them where they are.
Most of this campaign happened in person. A mock-retail space that traveled Idaho, turned a heavy subject into a place teens chose to walk into, and earned a real conversation once they did.
SC-01 · The space A traveling space teens actually walked into
More In Store parked where teens already were, at the fairs and events adults tend to skip. From the outside it read like a drop, not a lecture.
SC-02 · The hook Merch worth wearing
Boards, hats, bags, and shades good enough to carry home. The gear earned a few minutes of attention, and the room used them well.
SC-03 · The turn The merch was the doorway, the talk was the point
Teens only, no parents, no teachers. A simple exercise opened a real conversation about the future, with a near-peer who listened instead of advised.
From the agency floor to the field.
I came onto Buck the Quo as an in-house creative at Drake Cooper, right at the start of it. I shot and cut the bulk of the photo and video and led the social team.
When the campaign moved into the More In Store retail experience, my job changed. They put me in the field as a mentor to the teens, because of how I got here. I didn't go to college. I did an advertising internship that put me inside an agency in my early twenties, and they wanted me there to show teens that a future exists no matter what path they take.
So I went from the main shooter, editor, and social lead to boots on the ground. Between 2015 and 2018 the campaign had 18,000+ of those conversations. I mentored the ones chasing a media path: real conversations, connecting them to resources, and handing off the camera so they could shoot for the campaign themselves. The best of them became ambassadors who went out and made the work.
A brand teens actually claimed.
Rockie Awards.
