Unicef enlists Tea Leoni to highlight the organization’s 13,000 workers
In 1947, actor Téa Leoni’s grandmother co-founded Unicef USA. Now, the actress is voicing the organization’s end-of-year fundraising campaign, helping call attention to the tireless, and often dangerous, work its 13,000 workers around the world do to keep children and families safe and nourished.
Unicef campaign highlights the organization's 13,000 workers
Leoni’s grandmother, Helenka Pantaleoni, co-founded Unicef USA and served as its president for 25 years. Her father Anthony Pantaleoni also previously served as its board chair. Leoni has memories of trick-or-treating for Unicef as a child, and she was appointed a Unicef Ambassador in 2001. She now serves as a national board member.
The ‘We Won’t Stop’ campaign features a hero video voiced by Leoni. “Unreasonable. That’s how you have to be if you want to change things,” she says, as pictures of children in war-torn and impoverished areas are shown. The faces of Unicef workers are also highlighted, before the actions of those workers comes in fast clips.
“The world’s children need people… who see impossible as an incentive to try harder, who’ll find one good reason to keep going in the face of a thousand reasons to stop,” she states, as footage of workers giving children vaccines, fording raging rivers, airdropping food and going to remote areas to make the lives of children better is shown.
The campaign, done with strategic partner The Community, also features out-of-home placements with pictures of the workers and text that states things such as “We won’t stop until malnutrition is a thing of the past,” and “We won’t stop until every child has safe water.”
There are also videos that show individual stories and successes, like a malnourished child who is now well fed and smiling in South Sudan, or the work being done to help the Rohingya refugees from Myanmar living in a camp in Bangladesh.
Shelley Diamond, chief marketing officer of Unicef USA said: “Unicef has been a beacon for children around the world since it was founded in the aftermath of World War II. Many of those children grew up with Unicef, and some may be new to the organization.
“The ‘We Won’t Stop’ campaign is an opportunity to celebrate our history, but also reintroduce our brand, and our team, to the world. Often, people aren’t aware that our impact is only possible because we have a global staff of 13,000-plus working hard on the ground to save and improve the lives of children. Our staff – the real heroes driving our mission forward – work fearlessly on the front lines of conflict and natural disasters to keep children and families safe. The new campaign is meant to celebrate the strength of our badass do-gooders who make Unicef’s work possible.”
The campaign leads people to a dedicated webpage where they can learn more and donate to the cause.
