Cox, Arnold, Director Malik Vitthal Look To Close Digital Divide For Disadvantaged Students

Arnold Worldwide’s creative collaboration with its client, cable provider and broadband company Cox Communications has yielded a campaign centered around the digital divide across U.S. households. Designed to bridge that gap is Connect2Compete (C2C), a Cox program which provides lower-income families with low-cost, high speed internet.

The impact of the digital divide is profound as it relates to children and students. According to Common Sense Media, 15 to 16 million students don’t have access to adequate devices or internet connection; equaling about 30% of all students in the U.S.

The work from Arnold sheds light on the barriers that kids without high-speed home internet face to compete at school; highlighting the tenacity and extreme efforts taken by those who don’t have access to the internet at home. Whether it’s unreliable Wi-Fi signals or financial limitations, students are steadfast in finding ways to gain internet access. With an empathetic lens to the cause, the campaign stresses the idea, “How much more could these children accomplish with daily internet access?”

This spot directed by Malik Vitthal of The Corner Shop--which along with Radke served as production companies on the job--shows a student having to go to a restaurant or hang out elsewhere to piggy back on Wi-Fi in order to complete a homework assignment. The bottom line message: Homework is meant to be done at  home.

This campaign is an appeal for the potential success of future generations and their accessibility to information, communication, and opportunity. “The digital divide is real. The extents to which lower income students must go just to get internet is real,” said Arnold executive creative director James Bray. “This work not only highlights these students’ resiliency but also asks the viewer to imagine a world where the ‘home’ is finally put back in ‘homework.’ The C2C program aims to do just that.”