Entry updated · Sources & corrections policy
Featured era: 2006
Free Hugs Campaign
“A sign that said Free Hugs, and strangers who said yes.”
- Featured era
- 2006
- Peak era
- 2006-2007
- Company
- Juan Mann and Sick Puppies
- Category
- Viral Videos
0 people remember this
Log in to leave a flower
On Video
The Free Hugs video, set to Sick Puppies' "All the Same"
Plays from YouTube when you press play. Views, length and date from YouTube, October 2026.
About This Video
- From:
- PeaceOnEarth123
- Added:
- September 22, 2006
- Length:
- 3:40
What Was It?
The Free Hugs Campaign began on June 30, 2004, when an Australian man known only as Juan Mann stood in Sydney's Pitt Street Mall with a sign reading "FREE HUGS". On his first try he waited fifteen minutes before an elderly woman came up and hugged him. When police later told the huggers to stop, a petition with 10,000 signatures let them carry on.
Mann's friend Shimon Moore, singer of the band Sick Puppies, filmed Mann and his fellow huggers over two months. In mid-2006, after Mann's grandmother died, Moore cut the footage into a music video for the band's song "All the Same" and sent it to him as a gift. Uploaded to YouTube, it spread around the world.
By October 2006 free hugs campaigns had started in Taipei, Tel Aviv and Italy, and Mann was hugging the crowd outside Oprah's studio.
Things You Probably Forgot
- The FREE HUGS sign
- Pitt Street Mall on Thursday afternoons
- Sick Puppies' "All the Same"
- Free hugs signs turning up in cities everywhere
The Story
- 2004 Juan Mann gave out his first free hugs in Sydney's Pitt Street Mall on June 30.
- 2006 The "All the Same" video spread on YouTube, and Mann appeared on Oprah on October 30.
- 2007 The first International Free Hugs Day was held on July 7.
Its Legacy
The music video is still on YouTube, and the campaign outlived it, with an International Free Hugs Day each July and huggers in cities around the world.
Memories
Log in to add a comment and share your memory.
Loading comments…