The New York Times has launched “The Truth Takes a Journalist,” a new brand marketing campaign from Droga5 NY that highlights some of the 1,700+ Times journalists who have dedicated their lives to helping people understand the world through their coverage.
Behind every article in The New York Times, there is a human. A journalist with a heart and a mind at work–dedicated to reporting that not only provides us with the facts but enriches our lives. Each piece of journalism in The New York Times is crafted by a team of journalists working relentlessly to help us better understand the world around us. To celebrate them, we wanted to immortalize that tiny, two-letter word that sits beside every name on every piece of our journalism: By.
“The Truth Takes a Journalist” takes a radically human look at the people behind the reporting, celebrating the unique voices who make journalism rich and evocative.
Directed by Camille Summers-Valli of production house Somesuch, the film captures the lives hidden beneath “by”–using archival footage shot by Times journalists, the film is an invitation into a world unseen, a colorful introspection into who they are, what drives them and what makes them tick.
Each scene weaves together to show a wide spectrum of emotions that depicts the relationship between a journalist and their journalism, while personal sound bites reveal the rewarding, complicated, vulnerable, absurd, hopeful side of the process that often goes overlooked.
The campaign features television and streaming, audio spots and digital billboards throughout New York City’s subway stations, as well digital, online video, social media, display and print. The campaign will also run on TikTok (an effort led by The New York Times and a first for the brand), and will feature first-person, on-the-ground footage shot from Times journalists’ phones.
More than 30 Times journalists are featured in the campaign from news and Opinion teams, including reporters, video journalists, editors, Opinion writers, bureau chiefs, photojournalists, graphics directors and many others.
