The New York Times and Droga5 created the “Truth Is Hard,” the newspaper’s first brand campaign in a decade. The initial television ad, which debuted during the 2017 Academy Awards, featured simple black text on a white background. Each sentence began with “The truth is” and flashed through conflicting statements, such as “The truth is we need a full investigation of Russian ties,” and “The truth is leaking classified information is the real scandal.” Throughout the text statements, voices in the background added another layer of conflict. In the end, the voices gave way to a few simple piano notes. The text slowed and morphed to read “The truth is hard,” “The truth is hard to find,” “The truth is hard to know” and “The truth is more important now than ever.” The spot ended with the iconic New York Times nameplate.
