Break Free

Free Guitars 4 Kids needed more donations to get instruments into underserved kids' hands. The real obstacle: teens were checking their phones 100+ times a day, exposed to hate content, anxious, and isolated.

Donors give more when they see how a guitar does more than teach music. When a teen picks up a guitar and strums, they can escape the endless scrolling and pressure of social media.

An animated video called “Break Free” illustrated the story of a girl who soothed herself from cruel online chatter by picking up a guitar. Rock-tour posters carried that idea further, showing a guitar as a better alternative to a phone and a real way to feel better. Donors could see how, by helping give kids guitars, they were giving them an instrument of hope and calm.