Awards shows have been all but canceled this year because of Covid-19, but that doesn’t mean agencies won’t receive accolades for their work.
Most of the advertising and marketing industry’s organizations that annually dole out honors, including D&AD and the Clio Awards, are still forging ahead with awards—just sans the boozy galas that typically accompany them.
The One Club has spent much of this week revealing the Best of Discipline winners of its 99th annual ADC Awards, albeit virtually. There are still more winners to come—including Agency of the Year, which TBWA\Hakuhodo in Tokyo snagged last year—but we’ve rounded up ones that have come out so far.
“While for-profit shows like Cannes made financial decisions to cancel their in-person judging and festivals, we stepped up in our nonprofit role to support the creative community and quickly transitioned both judging and awards announcements online,” said Kevin Swanepoel, CEO of The One Club. “This year isn’t business as usual for anyone, including us, but we’re committed to finding ways to make it work.”
Best of Motion/Film/Gaming Craft: Apple’s “Bounce” (TBWA\Media Arts Lab, Pulse Films and Framestore)
Apple’s playful “Bounce” ad, created by none other than its longtime agency TBWA\Media Arts Lab, stars a man whose morning commute is transformed when he puts his AirPods in. Seconds after he walks out the door, he realizes that the ordinary objects he passes by every day—bus shelters, stairs, discarded mattresses on the sidewalk—are now infused with a trampoline-like quality. The short film is made all the more fun with the addition of “I Learnt Some Jazz Today,” a song by Jamaican producer and songwriter Tessellated. Read more about how the ad came together here.
Best of Experiential and Publication Design: ICHV’s “Most Dangerous Street” (FCB Chicago and its production unit, Lord + Thomas)
The Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence is a nonprofit dedicated to reducing death and injury caused by firearms. According to the organization, nearly 40 people are shot on the streets of Chicago each week. To bring this startling statistic to life, the nonprofit put together an exhibit on one of Chicago’s streets that used lasers to represent the lives of those recently lost to gun violence. Each person’s gender, age and time of death were projected onto the walls of surrounding buildings to further drive home the point that too many lives are lost to gun violence, and more needs to be done to stop it.
Best of Photography: “The King Becomes Her” by The New York Times Magazine
This year’s top photography honor went to The New York Times Magazine for its striking cover portrait of Glenda Jackson, who starred in the role of King Lear on Broadway last year. The black-and-white photo taken by Jack Davison, who shot a number of other stunning photos of the actress for the magazine’s cover story: “At 82, Glenda Jackson Commands the Most Powerful Role in Theater.”
Best of Packaging Design: The Female Company’s “The Tampon Book” (Scholz & Friends Berlin)
The Female Company is a German startup that sells tampons made of organic cotton grown grown without chemicals and pesticides. Last year, it began selling a book complete with stories and illustrations about periods that doubles as packaging for its products. The reason? At the time, books were subject to a lower tax rate than tampons. It was the brand’s way of drawing attention to the absurdity of menstrual products being classified at “luxury goods.” The book quickly sold out and garnered media attention—and at the beginning of this year, German lawmakers started taxing tampons as “essential” items, not luxury ones.
