It’s awfully hard to connect to the world around you without picking up your head to look at it.

Connection with the world around us is more important than ever as we fight to undo the damage done to it. In light of this, we conceptualized and executed a North Face initiative to celebrate Earth Day that required people to ditch their phones and, well, look around!

We gave them plenty to look at, too. The week-long series of events included unique culinary experiences led by world-renowned chef Angela Dimayuga, fashion and art exhibitions, and an exclusive acoustic performance by Grammy-Award winner Ella Mai. Hundreds of people enjoyed a wealth of diverse and enriching experiences throughout the week, all completely free of their phones.

Turns out taking people’s phones away makes them talk. Our activations garnered over 150 million impressions, bringing attention to the North Face’s petition to make Earth Day a national holiday. To-date, the petition has over 50,000 signatures.