Sandy Hook Promise and BBDO New York earned their second Outstanding Commercial Emmy Award together Saturday night in Los Angeles during the first of this year’s Creative Arts Emmy Awards shows.
Sandy Hook Promise and BBDO win Outstanding Commercial Emmy for 'Teenage Dream'
The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences bestowed the honor to “Teenage Dream,” Sandy Hook Promise’s latest anti-gun violence PSA that revisited Katy Perry’s famous pop tune of the same name through the eyes of teens who experienced gun violence firsthand.
Read: 'Teenage Dream' takes a dark turn in Sandy Hook Promise ad
The ad was directed by Smuggler’s Henry-Alex Rubin, who previously helmed other notable spots for the client including “Back to School Essentials,” the 2020 Outstanding Commercial Emmy winner that brought a morbid twist to return-to-school ads; as well as 2016’s “Evan,” which hid a gun violence awareness lesson within a love story.
The “Teenage Dream” ad unsettlingly used a music video format to recount the experiences of real-life teen gun violence survivors, including those of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in Parkland, Florida.
It bested another high-profile anti-gun violence ad, “The Lost Class” from Change the Ref and Leo Burnett, as well as two spots for Apple ("Detectives," "Everyone but Jon Hamm"); Meta/Facebook's "Skate Nation Ghana" from Droga5; and Chevrolet's "Walter the Cat" from Commonwealth/McCann.
See: All the 2022 Outstanding Commercial Emmy nominees
It marks the fifth Outstanding Commercial Emmy win for BBDO New York. Before SHP’s "Teenage Dream" and “Back to School Essentials,” it earned the honor for P&G’s “The Talk” (2018); Fedex’s “Stick” (2006) and HBO’s “Chimps” (1997).