# YouTube video of the year 2008 – 30 million views!

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/09/19/youtube-video-year-2008-30-million-views/
- Published: 2008-09-19T08:41:03+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Juan Mann set out to offer ‘Free Hugs’ to strangers “to brighten up their lives”.
It’s not a fundraising campaign, but there is an element of social action once the
campaign was banned by local police and Mann set out to collect 10,000 signatures
on a petition to reinstate the [campaign](http://www.freehugscampaign.org).

What is most significant about this video is that it has attracted 30,596,938 views
as of today. Thirty million views! Mann says that it is ” Youtube video of the year”.

So, feelgood low-budget videos can, if you’re lucky, generate massive interest both
on YouTube and in other media – look at the videos of the various TV interviews 
Mann took part in.

## Advertisement

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Does the [Free Hugs Campaign](http://www.freehugscampaign.org/) inspire your charity
to share something via YouTube or similar sites?

 * **[Why does this video content work for their cause?](https://fundraising.co.uk/2010/07/08/why-video-content-works-their-cause/)**(
   8 July 2010)
 * **[Confound audience expectations](https://fundraising.co.uk/2012/10/17/confound-audience-expectations/)**(
   17 October 2012)
 * **[Pushing the fundraising boat out](https://fundraising.co.uk/2013/02/28/pushing-fundraising-boat-out/)**(
   28 February 2013)

![Loading](https://fundraising.co.uk/wp-content/plugins/page-views-count/ajax-loader-
2x.gif)

## Comments

### By: HowardLake

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/09/19/youtube-video-year-2008-30-million-views/#comment-3271
- Published: 2014-02-23T11:46:00+00:00

And now it is at 74.9m views on YouTube. Remarkable.