Shimon Moore, center, one of the two men responsible for the web phenomenon known as the "Free Hugs Campaign." He is flanked by Mark Goodwin and Emma Anzai, his bandmates in the Sick Puppies.
(Myriam Santos-Kayda)
The meaning of a hug is understood universally. Maybe that is why one Internet video, the "Free Hugs Campaign," has been viewed by more than 17 million people, and has inspired several imitations on the Web.
But what few know is the success story behind the video, and how the song "All the Same" launched a Sydney band into cyberstardom.
The "Free Hugs Campaign" is a popular video that started in Australia as collaboration between Juan Mann, a local who had just broken up with his fiancée and was down on his luck, and Shimone Moore, a lead singer in a rather unknown band at the time, the Sick Puppies, who was saving up money to move to America to pursue his music career.
"One of the jobs that I had saving up my share of the money was this sandwich board that would advertise half-price shoes, and I would hold this board up for four hours a day, and I'd sit there and I'd read books, and I would write lyrics, and I would just, that is what I would do," Moore recalled.
While Moore was working in the mall, he ended up meeting Juan Mann, who was also carrying a sign, advertising "Free Hugs."
"I felt a little bit down and I felt like I had to do something a little inspiring to make myself smile and do something good for someone else," Mann said, "so, I went and got a piece of cardboard and wrote the words free hugs on it and went out into the Pitt Street mall in Sydney and offered a stranger a free hug. It's been a pretty amazing journey ever since."
Mann would stand for 15 minutes in the middle of a busy thoroughfare in Sydney, waiting. Then slowly complete strangers approached and hugged him.
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