The Free Hugs Campaign

By Jack Brummet, 
Memes, social movements, and pop culture editor

Juan Mann, Free Hugs Founder

 



http://www.freehugscampaign.org/

What became known around the world as The Free Hugs campaign was started by Juan Mann in 2004, December 1, 2004 when he began giving out hugs in Sydney, Australia.  That fall, Mann had felt  depressed and lonely.  But, a random hug from a stranger made an enormous difference.  Mann, quoted in the Wikipedia, said that "...I went out to a party one night and a completely random person came up to me and gave me a hug. I felt like a king! It was greatest thing that ever happened."

Mann wrote a sign advertising Free Hugs and went to the Pitt Street Mall in central Sydney, where he stood for 15 minutes before an elderly lady took pity on him. Her dog had just died, she confessed, and the hug had made her feel better. 

Soon Juan Mann (a pseudonym - 'one man') was handing out hugs constantly. As the days passed, more volunteers with their own handwritten signs came and stood alongside him. Initial distrust  gave way to many people willing to be hugged.  

  










In October 2004 the Sydney police told group they must stop--to be legal, Mann would need to buy public liability insurance worth $25 million. Mann and his group started a petition to convince authorities that his campaign should be allowed to continue (uninsured).  They submitted 10,000 signatures and were allowed to continue the free hugs. 

From Wikipedia:  "Mann befriended Shimon Moore, lead singer for Sick Puppies, shortly after commencing his campaign, and over a two-month period in late 2004 Moore recorded video footage of Mann and his fellow huggers. Moore and his band moved to Los Angeles in March 2005 and nothing was immediately done with the footage. Meanwhile Mann continued his campaign throughout 2005 and 2006 by appearing in Pitt Street Mall in Sydney most Thursday afternoons."

 

"In mid 2006 Mann's grandmother died, and in consolation Moore made the music video using the footage he had shot in 2004 to send to Mann as a gift, stating in an interview that, 'I sent it to him on a disc as a present and I wrote down This is who you are."

The video was later uploaded onto YouTube.  It is now one of the most viewed videos there, with over 73 million views as of August 2012.

 

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