The branding guru Scott Woodward ignited a kindness revolution over a decade ago with the help of Lady Gaga and One Direction for his then client Office Depot to create kinder schools across the nation and encourage parents, teachers and youth to talk about the subject for groundbreaking consecutive back-to-school campaigns to appeal to a younger demographic for the retail giant.
The work for Lady Gaga’s newly launched Born This Way Foundation came to him one afternoon when he watched its launch at Harvard University with Oprah. He knew he wanted to somehow work with them and had the brainchild to connect it to his latest brief with then client Office Depot to do something inventive and impactful for back-to-school with youth empowerment.
Woodward and his casting team immediately went to work enlisting the then relatively unknown Patrick Schwarzenegger, a high school student at the time, who was gaining notoriety as a newly minted male model in a provocative Hudson Jeans campaign on billboards everywhere in New York and Los Angeles.
The son of Arnold is now an accomplished actor in this season’s HBO hit White Lotus (with a racy headline grabbing plot to boot) all the while helming MOSH, the brain health nutrition bar he co-founded with his mother, Maria Shriver. That campaign also featured a fun spot with Greyson Chance, the young singer discovered by Ellen DeGeneres and managed by Lady’s Gaga’s management team at the time.
Both were highly publicized and considered the first Kindness-themed campaign for the pop singer’s newly launched foundation with the mantra, Be Brave run by her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, with the mission to make schools kinder for students and lower teen suicides resultant from cruel peer behavior. It launched Woodward’s legacy within this important social impact space that would spread over the next decade to other environments including sports, the workplace, politics and life in general.
KINDNESS IS COOL PSA by SEW BRANDED: YouTube Link
Woodward’s encore was followed up one year later, effortlessly we might add, with the campaign featuring pop sensation One Direction, with each band member embracing a singular word that embodied a strong youth empowerment and anti-bullying theme, including Harry Styles’ heroic Live Nice #TogetherAgainst Bullying as its resounding message. It was an impressive feat given the band was on tour in Europe and opted to fit this important campaign into their busy schedules, having just completed the infamous Pepsi spot with Quarterback Drew Brees.
The collaboration won Woodward’s SEW Branded, his self-founded NY based brand marketing firm, the Clio award for best collaboration and film in its respective categories and saw him receive Hetrick Martin’s prestigious Emery Award that year alongside Chelsea Clinton. On top, that campaign broke Twitter and garnered 5B media impressions (billion with a “B”) with Twitter executives reaching out to him.
Fast forward a decade later, he’s completed his trifecta within this important social impact space with another compelling PSA featuring some of New York’s most interesting and iconic personalities, across genres and industries, from fashion to photography to Broadway. His firm’s latest PSA was created for The Luisa Diaz Foundation, which uplifts communities by elevating kindness, empowering individuals, and supporting grassroots organizations all guided by the belief that Kindness is Cool to inspire change, create hope, and transform lives.
The two met at the New York International Fashion Film Festival, founded by friend Pedro Oberto, where they quickly realized they shared a bond over their respective kindness passion, espousing that indeed Kindness is Cool and is a strength, not a weakness as some might conjecture, especially in the boardroom and business. Woodward did a stint at Calvin Klein in his early career as an in-house marketing executive, notoriously one of the less kind fashion houses, before his entrepreneurial turn with his own agency.
This latest work, an elegant PSA featuring iconic New York personalities across disciplines that include Nick Adams, Brandon Cole Bailey, Candace Bushnell, Luisa Diaz, Julia Haart, Dina Lohan, Ali Lohan, and Patrick McMullan, espouses kindness as a strength, not weakness, as well as uplifting, healthy, sexy and positive. When asked about it, Woodward said “I was drawn to Diaz’s belief that kindness is inherently a strength and leadership attribute that should be celebrated and not diminished or considered a weakness.”
Woodward on set with founder Luisa Diaz and social media influencer Brandon Cole Bailey.
On his favorite part of the process in this latest effort? “It was a thrill to work with some of my famous friends who jumped at the chance to participate, for which I am grateful.” The PSA cast included friends Nick Adams, most recently winning 2025 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Lead Performer in an Off-Broadway Musical, which Woodward caught in December, as well as New York nightlife photography legend, Patrick McMullan who accompanied Woodward to the Gala and social media influencer/model, Brandon Cole Bailey.
The PSA opened the 2025 Mia Amor Graciousness Gala at Cipriani on May 6, 2025 where Woodward, the spot’s writer, director and creator with his agency, SEW Branded was honored with a Kindness is Cool Award for his career work within this important social impact space, modeling a kinder world within our families, communities and shared environments, including schools, workplaces and sports. Woodward was honored over a decade ago at the same venue when Hetrick Martin honored him with the Emery Award.
Woodward with model friends Alex Lundqvist and Vin Wick with his Kindness is Cool Award.
Presented by: APG
