Crayola reunites adults with artwork they made decades ago in ‘Campaign for Creativity’

While to some, children’s drawings may look like nothing more than lines and circles put together in odd patterns and colors, the reality is, art is a valuable creative outlet that many will carry with them into adulthood. That’s the truth Crayola demonstrates in a short film titled “Stay Creative,” which offers a glimpse into the brand’s extensive archives of children’s drawings. The short film shows how Crayola unlocked its archives and reunited adults with the artwork they created as kids 40 years ago. The documentary-style film goes on to depict interviews with the artists and their loved ones and caretakers who inspired creativity, and looks at how the artists incorporate creativity into their own children’s lives. The work is part of of Crayola's “Campaign for Creativity,” which challenges conventional perceptions about creativity and aims to start a dialogue about the value of creativity and how parents can integrate more creative moments into their children’s lives. “We know there is substantial research and empirical evidence around the importance of childhood creativity and the role it plays in helping children reach their full potential, and we saw a gap in the existing dialogue about creativity being a valuable life skill. Given Crayola’s long-standing mission of helping parents and educators raise creatively alive kids, and the deep trust Crayola has with consumers, we felt passionate about addressing this gap,” Victoria Lozano, EVP of marketing at Crayola, told Ad Age. “For over 40 years, Crayola celebrated children’s creativity by collecting and showcasing thousands of pieces of children’s artwork. So, what better way to start the conversation about nurturing children’s creativity than to open up our archives and find some of the ‘kids’ who created that art decades ago?” she continued. As part of the campaign, for the first time, Crayola will release pieces from its vault—the largest collection of children’s artwork in the world—with hopes to return 1,000 creations over the next year with the help of actor and filmmaker John Krasinski. To select the ones that were included in the film, Crayola catalogued 1,000 pieces of art, then narrowed that down to approximately 200 that the brand felt were “especially compelling, either based on the art itself or the description submitted along with the artwork,” Lozano explained. The company then worked with Tiffany Company Casting to begin finding people. “It took hundreds of emails, DMs and cold calls, but eventually we identified about a dozen people whose art we had in our archives. The interesting part is that we didn’t tell them we were Crayola. In fact, the three people whose stories are featured in our films didn’t fully understand what they were being interviewed for until the artwork reveal,” Lozano said. “Their responses were completely authentic, which was exactly what we were going for.” The effort comes as a research study between Crayola and the Ad Council Research Institute found that nine in 10 parents say creativity is important for their child, and that encouraging children to use their imagination, explore different possibilities, and express themselves authentically is essential for their development and learning. However, parents said they need help overcoming barriers to making creative moments part of their daily routines. More than 60% of parents don’t think their children get enough creative activity or aren’t sure if they do, while 53% of parents believe they need to be creative themselves to raise creative kids, and an additional 21% are not sure. Meanwhile, 33% of parents struggle balancing creative moments with too many other things that compete for time throughout the day, and 29% have difficulty coming up with new creative activities. As a result, the campaign will continue with more efforts to build creative opportunities for kids.

Crayola reunites adults with artwork they made decades ago in ‘Campaign for Creativity’

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