OSSA and Uncommon New York open a SoHo confessional where New Yorkers trade phone sins for a Rossary phone chain

Key Takeaways

• Phone accessory brand OSSA and Uncommon New York built confession boxes on Mercer Street in SoHo for New Yorkers to admit their worst phone habits.

• Each confessor had 45 seconds to confess and received a limited edition Rossary phone chain in return.

• OOH creative was projected onto a church in downtown Manhattan, and wild postings appeared around New York.

• The project went from pitch deck to Mercer Street in eight weeks and starts a revenue share partnership between Uncommon and OSSA.

OSSA has been asking New Yorkers to confess their digital sins, setting up confession boxes on Mercer Street in SoHo where passersby could admit to their worst phone habits in exchange for a limited edition phone chain. Created with Uncommon New York, the activation turned everything from ghosting to checking an ex’s profile into material for a confession, with a premise that anyone who has lost an evening to scrolling will probably recognise. Forgive me, Father, for I have scrolled. The reward for coming clean was the Rossary, a beaded phone chain that carried the religious reference through to the product itself.

The campaign gave New Yorkers 45 seconds to confess their worst phone habits

Each person entering the confessional had 45 seconds to share their digital misdemeanours before receiving a Rossary chain, which clips onto the phone responsible for the confession. Uncommon’s president of customer experience, Kris Gibbons, offered a few examples of what might qualify, including ghosting, stalking an ex online, sending endless voice notes, shopping and ordering too much delivery food. The invitation gave New Yorkers a chance to clear their digital conscience while having a little fun with habits they might otherwise feel guilty about.

The campaign also appeared beyond Mercer Street, with creative projected onto a church in downtown Manhattan and posters placed across the city. Uncommon took the project from pitch deck to the street in eight weeks, bringing together the confession boxes, projections and posters around the same idea.

For Ben Golik, creative partner at Uncommon, the appeal lay in the complicated relationship people have with their phones. They serve as diaries, navigators and companions, yet people often resent how much time they spend using them and how much personal information they hold. OSSA’s products made that tension particularly interesting to explore, because, as Golik put it, “as much as we want to put our phone down, we strap ourselves to it”.

The beaded chains also drew on research into how we direct our attention

There was more behind the Rossary than its name, as Uncommon also explored psychologists Stephen and Rachel Kaplan’s work on soft fascination, a form of attention that requires little effort and gives the mind room to rest. Gibbons contrasted this with the demands phones place on our attention, using the example of turning a smooth pebble over in your hand to explain how a simple physical sensation can offer a quieter focus.

According to Gibbons, OSSA’s customers were already using its beaded chains in a similar way, even though the products had not originally been designed for that purpose. The team used that behaviour as a starting point for straps that placed greater emphasis on how the beads felt in people’s hands, giving the giveaway a connection to the phone habits being discussed inside the booths.

That thinking added another layer to the confessional, although it remained rooted in an observation about everyday behaviour rather than a promise that a phone chain could resolve it. People were being invited to acknowledge how attached they had become to their phones, then leave with something tactile attached to the same device.

OSSA and Uncommon are sharing in the commercial success of the partnership

The SoHo setting also reflected OSSA’s roots as a New York brand and the role phones play in getting around the city, arranging plans and keeping daily life moving. Placing the booths on a busy street brought the idea directly to people likely to have plenty of phone habits to confess, turning a private source of embarrassment into something they could laugh about together.

OSSA sells clear iPhone cases with a ball stud connection that attaches to its range of wristlet, shoulder and crossbody cords, with the transparent case priced at $30. Golik described the business as part of a growing group of brands that have built recognition through social platforms, making its relationship with phone use particularly relevant to the brief.

The project also marks a different commercial arrangement between the two businesses. Rather than working to a conventional agency fee, Uncommon and OSSA have entered a partnership in which the studio receives a share of revenue, giving both companies a stake in the products’ success. Uncommon opened its New York office in October 2023, following Havas’s acquisition of a 51% majority stake earlier that year, with the investment supporting its expansion into the city.