Free Hugs Campaign

Juan Mann, who started the Free Hugs movement, seen at Pitt Street Mall, Sydney, Australia, 2006
Over 300 medical students, gave more than 30,000 free hugs in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, at Corpus Christi mass on May 30th, 2013
'FREE HUGS' well received in Chile.
'FREE HUGS', Hyde Park, London.
Free Hugs in Sydney, Australia, August 2004
A student group part of 'FREE HUGS' Chile

The Free Hugs Campaign is a social movement involving individuals who offer hugs to strangers in public places.[1] The hugs are meant to be random acts of kindness—selfless acts performed just to make others feel better. International Free Hugs Month is celebrated on the first Saturday of July and continues until August first.

The campaign in its present form was started in 2004 by an Australian man known only by the pseudonym "Juan Mann".[2] The campaign became famous internationally in 2006 as the result of a music video on YouTube by the Australian band Sick Puppies, which has been viewed over 77 million times as of November 20, 2015.

History

The Free Hugs campaign in its present form was started by Juan Mann on June 30, 2004, when he began giving out hugs in the Pitt Street Mall in central Sydney. In the months prior to this, Mann had been feeling depressed and lonely as a result of numerous personal difficulties. However, a random hug from a stranger made an enormous difference, with Mann stating 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 carried the now iconic "FREE HUGS" sign from the outset. However on his first attempt in his hometown, where he returned to find that he was the only person he knew, as his friends and family had moved away, he had to wait fifteen minutes before an elderly lady came up to him and gave him a hug.[3]

Initial distrust of Juan Mann's motives eventually gave way to a gradual increase of people willing to be hugged, with other huggers (male and female) helping distribute them. In October 2005 police told them they must stop, as Mann had not obtained public liability insurance worth $25 million for his actions. Mann and his companions used a petition to attempt to convince authorities that his campaign should be allowed to continue without the insurance. His petition reached 10,000 signatures. He submitted it and was allowed to continue giving free hugs.[4]

Mann befriended Shimon Moore, lead singer for Sick Puppies, shortly after commencing his campaign, and over a two-month period in late 2005 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'."[4] The video was later uploaded onto YouTube, where it has been viewed 74 million times as of October 2013.[5]

On October 30, 2006, Mann was invited by Oprah Winfrey to appear on her show Oprah after her producer's doctor saw the Free Hugs video on YouTube. Juan Mann made an appearance outside her studio that morning, offering free hugs to the crowd waiting to see the taping of that day's episode. Oprah's camera crews caught several people in the audience hugging Mann as the morning progressed.[6]

On October 23, 2007, Juan Mann announced his residential address online and offered an open invitation to anyone to come over and chat on-camera as part of his 'open-house project'. Mann hosted 80 guests over 36 days. On November 25, 2007, Mann's landlord threatened him with eviction, so he launched an online appeal.[7]

On December 25, 2007, Juan Mann published an e-book as a free download. On November 22, 2008, at YouTube Live Sick Puppies did a performance of "All the Same" while Juan Mann gave hugs to crowd members. On February 13, 2009 a Free Hug Day took place.

Free hugs signs were also commonly seen at Phish shows at least as early as 1996.[8]

Official website

A website that is generally recognized as the official site of the free hugs campaign, The Official Home of the Free Hugs Campaign,[9] was launched in mid-2007. This site enables those involved in the campaign to better organize themselves and coordinate their efforts. Many initiatives resulted from these efforts. For example, on the websites forum (hosted on Dragon Arts),[10] those involved in the campaign called for an annual International Free Hugs Day. Juan Mann declared that the day would fall on the first Saturday following June 30 each year; this being the first date that Juan ever offered free hugs in Pitt Street Mall, Sydney in 2004. The first International Free Hugs Day was July 7, 2007, the second on July 5, 2008, and the third was on July 4, 2009. (See above regarding Valentine's Day).

Juan Mann's Official Blog[11] remained dormant after his apparent retirement but has been updated at times; it proclaims itself as the "true home" of the Free Hugs Campaign and hosts interviews conducted with individuals holding Free Hugs Campaigns internationally.

Controversy

In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, two men were arrested by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice for offering free hugs in a public space. The move was criticized on Twitter, however others opposed the campaign altogether.[12]

Publicity and expansion

The free-huggers Thyago Ohana (right) and Alejandro Sosa (left) with Conchita Wurst (middle) as the 'Free Hugs Vienna' group supported the Tolerance Campaign leading to Conchita's Eurovision Song Contest 2014 Victory
The free-huggers Thyago Ohana (left) and Andreas Weinbacher (right) at the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 as the 'Free Hugs Vienna' group supported the 'Building Bridges' motto of the event.

References

  1. Ellen Connolly Hugs and smiles, but not everyone embraces the trend Sydney Morning Herald, December 1, 2004
  2. WHO Magazine Interview Spreading the Love: Juan Mann December 1, 2004
  3. The Gift of Giving Back The Oprah Winfrey Show.
  4. 1 2 Who Magazine Spreading the Love: Shimon Moore (Sick Puppies) January 30, 2007
  5. Free Hugs Campaign - Official Page (music by Sick Puppies.net )
  6. Oprah.com Juan Mann on Oprah Archived December 1, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
  7. Andrew Ramadge, Free Hugs star a 'security risk' NEWS.com.au
  8. The Daily Gazette - Aug 18, 1996
  9. "Official Home of the Free Hugs Campaign - Inspired by Juan Mann - Home". freehugscampaign.org. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
  10. http://www.dragonarts.us/forum
  11. "Juan Mann - True Home of the Free Hugs Campaign". juanmann.com. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
  12. "Saudi police arrest two over 'free hugs'". aljazeera.com. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
  13. Free Hugs campaign arrives in Taiwan, Independent Online (South Africa), October 7, 2006
  14. "Free Hugs campaign of Tel Aviv". Nrg.co.il. 2007-04-23. Retrieved 2013-02-18.
  15. "News on Corriere della Sera". Corriere.it. Retrieved 2013-02-18.
  16. "Major League Baseball: Photo Gallery". mlb.com. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
  17. "Huggers end up in police custody". Chinadaily.com.cn. 2006-11-06. Retrieved 2013-02-18.
  18. Boyd, Shaun. "Free Hugs' Movement Spreads To Boulder". CBS4 News (Denver, Colorado). Archived from the original on November 12, 2006.
  19. A little tenderness in a world of roughness... (in French)
  20. The Straits Times, "The Sunday Times Lifestyle", L5. December 24, 2006. "Care for a hug?" by Eunice Quek.
  21. Gratis knuffels op de Meir (in Dutch)
  22. Goedaardig virus verovert de wereld (in Dutch)
  23. Free hugs for France Archived March 14, 2007, at the Wayback Machine., news.com.au, March 12, 2007
  24. "icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk". icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk. Retrieved 2013-02-18.
  25. "Rahman advocates free hugs for peace". Daily News and Analysis. 15 December 2008. Retrieved 28 April 2011.
  26. Monday, February 18, 2013 2:51 AM EST Facebook Twitter RSS (2009-02-09). "Toronto Star". Thestar.com. Retrieved 2013-02-18.
  27. "Free Hugs Jordan". YouTube. 2009-07-05. Retrieved 2013-02-18.
  28. "Gratis martnasklem - NRK Trøndelag - NRK Nyheter". Nrk.no. Retrieved 2013-02-18.
  29. "Say it with a hug". The Hindu (Chennai, India). July 13, 2010.
  30. "Free Hugs for World Peace". September 21, 2011.
  31. "Most People Hugging Each Other". June 8, 2012.
  32. "Free Hugs - Abraços Grátis".
  33. "Hugs Around The World in 80 days".
  34. "Free Hugs in the Press Centre!". The Eurovision Times (Austria). May 3, 2014.
  35. "#freehugs for everybody, spread tolerance #eurovisionsongcontest2014". ESC Austria (Austria). May 3, 2014.
  36. "CONCHITA’S BOY GIVING FREE HUGS". OIKO Times (Austria). May 8, 2014.
  37. "Free Hugs Flash Mob am Sonntag am Wiener Stephansplatz". Vienna.at (Austria). November 17, 2014.
  38. "Free Hugs am Stephansplatz: Leserreporterin bei Flashmob in Wien". Vienna.at (Austria). November 24, 2014.
  39. "Free Hugs @ X-Mas Market in the Schönbrunn Palace". Vienna.at (Austria). December 20, 2015.
  40. "Free Hugs Vienna". Eurosong.be (Belgium). May 6, 2015.
  41. "Die ganze Welt umarmen". Wina Magazin (Austria). July 17, 2015.
  42. "‘Free Hugs’ campaign lands in Saudi Arabia".
  43. "Gratis-Umarmungen für Song-Contest-Fans". Salzburger Nachrichten (Austria). May 22, 2015.
  44. ""Free Hugs" - Freiwillige verteilen herzige Umarmungen". Heute.at (Austria). May 17, 2015.
  45. "Free hugs Vienna: Meet Eurovision 2015 hugger Thyago". Wiwibloggs (Austria). May 21, 2015.
  46. "A Day In the Life Of Eurovision - Thyago Ohana aka 'Mr Free Hugs' at Eurovision". Eurovision Ireland (Ireland). May 16, 2015.

External links

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