Forgiving Johnny
Directed by 2x Oscar winner Ben Proudfoot.
Executive produced by me; Publicis Sapient’s CEO & CMO; and NBA All Star Karl-Anthony Towns.
Forgiving Johnny tells the story of one of the first successful diversions of a developmentally disabled defendant in Los Angeles history.
Results:
47 media placements for Publicis Sapient, totaling $10m in earned media value.
Together with Never Done, led to +15% brand awareness and +24% brand perception for Publicis Sapient.
2x Clios; Cannes Lions shortlist; 4 Academy Award-qualifying film festivals; inclusion in the US State Department's American Film Showcase.
Even though state law permits the diversion of disabled defendants to treatment instead of prison, it turns out that almost nobody was actually being diverted.
Why? The process of applying for diversion would require a lawyer to manually track down reams of physical paperwork. For court-appointed public defenders who are already stretched far beyond their limits, the process was too labyrinthine to even pursue.
That is, until Publicis Sapient digitized all 600 million records at the Los Angeles County Public Defender's Office.
Johnny, the developmentally disabled man at the center of this film, is hopefully the first of many LACPDO defendants to benefit from this digital transformation.
