One day, one man called "Juan Mann", from Australia, felt alone in an Airport and decided to offer "free hugs" to anybody. After being ignored for about 15 minutes, people started to think it was a good idea. Then, Juan decided that his sole mission in life was to reach out and hug a stranger to brighten up their lives.
In September, 2006, he was offering "Free Hugs" in the street when a friend of him, Shimon Moore, recorded him with his video camera. He made a video with the recording and added a song of his own music group (Sick Puppies) to it. They posted it in YouTube. This is the video...
Today, just 10 moths after the release of the video these are the facts:
- The video is in the list of the most viewed videos in the whole history of YouTube (16,615,621 views)
- The video won the "Most Inspirational" video award in the 2006 YouTube Video Awards
- There are 1,780,000 search results in Google for the expression "free hugs".
- A "Free Hugs Campaign" movement has been created, with local groups all over the World.
- Juan Mann and his "Free Hugs Campaign" has 20,983 friends in MySpace.
- The group called "A Campaign for Free Hugs" has 26,126 members in Facebook.
It was a matter of minutes the time I had to wait to have "Juan Mann" as a personal friend in both, MySpace and Facebook.
Of course, business has also been affected:
- Initial distrust of Juan's motives eventually gave way to a gradual increase of people willing to be hugged, with other huggers (male and female) helping distribute them. After some time, security guards, then 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, and he submitted it and was allowed to continue giving free hugs
- In Spain, a cable company called "Ono" used a very similar video to sell their products in a very popular "campaign". The Spanish "Free Hugs Campaign" organization (Abrazos Gratis, in Spanish) told everybody what they were doing and they had to quit that form of advertisement.
- Sick Puppies music became extremelly popular all over the World because of the video and the song they gave for it: "All the same". They moved to the United States and became famous.
I think it is a very good example of what can be done with Internet with the power of people with good ideas. 
By the way, here is a BIG FREE HUG from John Lennon, he sent it worldwide in 1971, the same year the first e-mail was sent. He called it "Imagine", and it's coupled with some magic words. 
Keywords: big hugs, business, collaboration, free, free hugs, hugs, hugs and kisses, imagine, kisses, kisses on da cheek, music, social networks, success, video, web 2.0
Comments
I am glad you liked it, Joan.
By the way, do you know that Ben Werdmuller, one of the creators of this open source social networking platform (Elgg), talked about the importance of hugs in social networking? It was months before the "Free Hugs" video appeared.
If you want to get updated daily on the Free Hugs movement, you can follow it also in del.icio.us (links) and in Technorati (blogs). And, of course, you have the official international forums. It's amazing how active it is.
(hug)
I was also impressed when I first saw the video, Nicole.
It is amazing how such a simple thing is really so important for us all. We need to feel the phisical presence of others and to really "get in touch" with them. In our society we do not think too much in those kind of things, but they are really important.
So many people living together in such big cities and sometimes we feel so alone. I think that is why this movement has become so popular in such a small time. The technology has helped a lot in letting people know about it, but it is the human part the one that has made it so successful. We all need a hug. It is very important for us. It is good to know it has impressed you so much. Do not forget to hug someone from time to time, they do not have to be strangers to do that.