Cheekbone Beauty Cosmetics and Sid Lee Win First-Ever Inclusivity, Diversity and Equity in Advertising (IDEA) Competition

Bell Media announced today, from its Upfront 21 presentation, that Cheekbone Beauty Cosmetics and its agency Sid Lee have won the Institute of Communications Agencies’ (ICA) inaugural Inclusivity, Diversity and Equity in Advertising (IDEA) competition, held in partnership with Bell Media. This year’s focus was on campaigns highlighting Indigenous communities with the winner awarded $1 million worth of inventory on Bell Media platforms. This year’s winner is the Indigenous-owned Cheekbone Beauty, whose mission is to help Indigenous youth see and feel their impact in the world while creating sustainable colour cosmetics. 

Featuring a positive news ‘smear campaign’, the award-winning creative blocks out negative headlines about Indigenous communities, focusing audience attention on good news championing positivity and defiance, seeking to ‘right the story’ of Indigenous people in the media. 

In addition to the creative excellence and ingenuity behind its winning proposal, Cheekbone Beauty’s entry excelled across all competition criteria, including its commitment to promoting an inclusive culture and diverse representation throughout the entire campaign execution.

“The purpose and ambition shown in the entries made judging very hard and at times emotional, which is exactly what we wanted – the agencies and brands put everything into it,” said Scott Knox, president and CEO, ICA.  “I have no doubt that seeing the final campaign delivered by Sid Lee and Cheekbone Beauty will set a new standard, not only for diversity in marketing but excellence in authentic brand building. I’m also sure we’ll see the other entries come to life too.”

“Congratulations to Cheekbone Beauty and Sid Lee on this well-deserved win, which magnifies the essence of the campaign’s double entendre ‘Right the Story’. Behind this positive headline is an Indigenous-owned beauty brand that celebrates and supports diversity, inclusion and equity in every aspect of its business,” said Brandon Moonrei, director, DSP partnerships and client strategy, Bell Media. “Bell Media proudly salutes all of this year’s outstanding participants for their excellent entries, and for modelling a diverse and inclusive blueprint for the Canadian media industry.” 

This year’s winning entry was selected by a specially curated jury comprised of 12 diverse, established talent from the Canadian media sector, bringing a breadth of creativity, experience and vision toward increasing diverse and inclusive representation in advertising and within the media industry as a whole. 

Open to national and international brands and their agencies, the IDEA Competition seeks to create meaningful change in the media industry and to encourage greater representation of diverse communities in Canadian advertising campaigns while also encouraging diversity and inclusivity in the creative process.