Each year charitable giving grows but so does the competition among charities. Our challenge was to make sure that consumers looking for a charitable gift chose Oxfam.

Our solution came from the insight that gift givers strongly associate the present they give with themselves. Since Oxfam only sells symbolic gifts we decided to turn each gift into a likeable character. And then we told people “You Are What You Give,” and encouraged them to “be a pig,” "be a goat," "be a vegetable garden," and "be a bee."

Each poster shows our characters framed in a portrait, lending a sense of importance and grandeur that nicely contrasts the silliness of our subjects. We used bold and simple Oxfam colors to stand out against traditional red/green holiday ads, yet placed our header in a ribbon and added a bow above the sub-copy to give a subtle nod to the holiday season. We also paid a lot of attention to the little details that make each character. The goat has taken a bite out of her glasses and the print on her shirt shows flowers and grasses that goats commonly eat. The Oxfam logo can even be seen on her locket.

In the end, “You Are What You Give” was one of Oxfam’s most successful campaigns ever. They had over $1 million in sales and a lot of tools and supplies were sent to those who need them most.