“Life Needs Truth” was a campaign that showed that, for every part of our chaotic and upended lives, there is a piece of Times journalism that helps bring clarity and guidance to it. We wrote a five-verse visual poem, built with words from Times reporting, which captured the current time and the feeling of living in America. The rhythm of the poem came to life without any VO or narration—the campaign reflected the relationship people have with The Times as they read it in their everyday lives.

The editing was essential to putting the rhythm of the poem into the viewer’s head without relying on narration or VO. The rhythm of the cut created the cadence of the poem, the words and the images coming in a way that you could hear them without them being read aloud. Each word in the cut had to work with the rhythm of the jazz, which reflected the unpredictable nature of life right now.