This week: a homeless person you can’t ignore, scary office cleaners and a touching celebration of the trans community.
The top 5 creative campaigns you need to know about right now
5. Heineken: Office Cleaners
Agency: Publicis Italy/Le Pub
This latest extension of the beer brand’s “work responsibly” campaign is based around the notion that if you see the office cleaners arrive, you’re working too late and should go and have a beer instead. As well as a commercial that follows some classic horror movie tropes (flickering lights, a mysteriously leaking trash bag), the campaign placed QR codes on vests worn by office cleaning company employees in Argentina; scanning them gives access to beer vouchers.
4. Crisis: Homelessness Can't Be Ignored
Agency: Adam&Eve/DDB
The more homeless people we see, the less we really “see” them. That’s the insight behind this campaign from U.K. charity Crisis, which placed a 14-foot, hyper-realistic sculpture of a homeless person on the streets of London outside a major train station. Intended to make the problem “impossible to ignore” at a time when homelessness rates are growing fast, the creation uses AI face mapping technology to combine facial features of 17 real people who have experienced homelessness. QR codes nearby direct visitors to the Crisis website with opportunities to read people’s stories of experiencing homelessness, as well as to donate.
Also read: Top 5 out-of-home innovations of 2022
3. Girls Who Code: Girls Who Code Girls
Agency: Mojo Supermarket
The gaming industry needs work when it comes to improving female character representation in games. Girls Who Code is lending a hand to the cause in this new campaign, launching a site to help girls create personalized video game characters. Users start with a template player whose appearance can be changed with code, including everything from their hairstyle to body size. The library of characters will also be licensable and offered to gaming companies to inform their game development.
2. Reddit: Reddit Recap
Agency: R/GA
Forgotten already what happened this year? Reddit’s yearly wrap-up is a nearly three-minute frenzy of memorable topics, backed by an original song, “A Beautiful Mess,” that aptly characterizes 2022. Moments include Will Smith’s infamous slap at the Oscars, the AI-generated art craze, hit TV shows like “Severance” and “House of the Dragon” and a scroll of heartwarming, viral videos that cater to Reddit's various communities. The craziness is interspersed with more serious topics, including destruction from hurricanes, the Russia-Ukraine war and protests over civil rights in Iran.
1. J&B Scotch: She
Agency: El Ruso de Rocky, Madrid
Diageo-owned whisky brand J&B addresses the issue that many trans and non-binary people find family get-togethers awkward during the holidays—something that it dubs “Christmas Homosexolitude”—in this powerful ad from Spain. The spot set in rural Spain centers on a grandfather who experiments with makeup in order to bond with his transgender grandchild, the story playing out to the poignant soundtrack of “She” by Charles Aznavour (which you might recall from “Notting Hill.”) We think it could resonate with many families this year, as different generations come together for the first time since the pandemic.