“Childish Gambino’s video grabs you by the throat” - CNN;

“There’s plenty of messaging about race, violence and the entertainment industry” - New York Times;

“Donald Glover’s “This Is America” is a stylish, ambitious provocation” - Vanity Fair;

“Racism, violence, and modern society issues in a Meirelles’ “City Of God” like universe” - Globo;

If there’s one thing the Music industry has showed us is that it can lead some of the greatest and best moments of reflexion in society. And that’s exactly what “This Is America” music video does.

• Situation

Donald Glover Jr. is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, director, musician, and DJ. He performs music under the stage name “Childish Gambino”. In 2018 he was about to release his 11th single “This Is America” as lead artist, under the management of Glassnote Records.

• Brief

The song definitely needed a music video. “This Is America” appeared in a moment USA was really confronted to impressive numbers: according to studies by Cornell University and Washington University, in the United States, 39% of people killed by police are black. And it’s about three black people a day, says this study from 2017. The music video should use this opportunity of this debate to make an statement about that issue.

• Objectives

Transform “This Is America” in a cultural phenomena by lead the conversation about racism, violence, society issues and how we are all dealing with those subjects.

“This Is America” is a surreal visual narrative with a really crazy confluence of tone changes - the premise of the video and the song, in a way. Even the violence, though it’s harrowing, there’s a part of it that also feels cartoony. People are all so media savvy nowadays that, even from the start, the idea was surprising them and trying to deliver something that people don’t know that they want to see - from the unrestricted access to fire guns, to Charleston massacre. Choreography brings echos from the 19th century minstrels presentations, the blackface, the Jim Crow, the black watermelon eater, the Little Sambo. References from the movies, specially “City Of God”, from Fernando Meirelles, give the necessary rhythm and mood of what to see and expect.

Using the prestige and the access to media the artist already had, we needed to spread the word about the music video. For that, PR executions with Childish Gambino, mixed with digital streaming services and social media was the main strategy used.

• Implementation

The music video was filmed at a warehouse

• Timeline

Video producing (14 days: shooting, editing, post-prod, and FX) / PR strategy (International TV launching) / Digital strategy (uploading the video and feeding the artist’s social media channels) / PR strategy (maintenance).

• Placement

Using initially PR strategy, the artist Child Gambino performed at first at the Saturday Night Live Show (America’s n. 1 entertainment TV show, with international audience), on May 5, 2018. After that, the video was immediately uploaded at the artist’s Youtube channel. Within just one hour, the music video had already hit more then 1 million views.

• Scale

At the following days, continuing our PR strategy, lots of media talking went on, but also celebrities, influencers and the public, spreading the word about the video.

• Reach

After 5 days of launching, the video hit the impressive 50 million views. Now, we have 500 million views to date only at the official Youtube channel of the artist. Impressions exploded by billions at the internet.

• Engagement

The most important opinion makers from all over the world started to talk about and share the video. The video was the trending topic of Twitter for an entire week.

• Impact

“This Is America” was told by the media as the most important culture topic of 2018 coming from music. The video made history: Best Music Video at MTV Brazil; Best Music Video at Ibiza Movies Music Awards; Best Music Video at UK Music Awards; Best Music Video at MTV Music Video Awards; Music Video of the Year at Shots Awards; Best Music Video at the Grammy Awards.