in april 2020, global brand design planned a skateboarding story for the “ready for sport” campaign, intended as an optimistic vision of post pandemic normalcy. due to covid protocols & restrictions, we didn’t go through an agency, and instead worked directly with the photographer and videographer. i worked with them to develop the shot list & overall content capture planning to support needs across the main brand channel and skateboarding social channels. in the days leading up to the shoot, protests following the murder of george floyd made it clear that the original narrative felt insufficient. partnering with sports marketing, we expanded our approach – capturing the required “ready for sport” messaging while also openly addressing the reality of what was happening in the u.s. in that moment. we worked closely with tyshawn to create two distinct narratives: one aligned with the campaign brief and another grounded in the moment. once we had a first pass of the v.o. for both edits. i approached the brand leadership team and proposed we release the content with tyshawn speaking out against structural racism in america, in lieu of the “ready for sport” narrative, that seemed out of touch for an audience in the united states. the campaign leads understood the significance of it for the american market, and we moved forward to complete the edit with a distinct message against racism. this pivot became referred to as “ready for change” for the us market. our content piece with tyshawn became a model to follow, with subsequent “ready for change” stories being created with donovon mitchell, candace parker and patrick mahomes.