Work of the Week: 02/05/25
Eurostar - Reasons to Eurostar
Chosen by Aysun Bora, Germany reporter
Oh, Eurostar. The lovely train that connects me and my friends with our families in Europe and makes it possible to enjoy a Parisian croissant in just about two hours. Artist Noma Bar seems to share my love for the brand since she put her unique art style on this ‘Reasons to Eurostar’ campaign. The digital out-of-home, radio and press campaign has her signature all over it with bold visual storytelling and strong colour contrast. The posters even have contextually relevant headlines for the different countries since the campaign was rolled out in the UK, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Overall, this collaboration is relevant, unique and just cool.
Chicken Licken - Boneless Bites of Soul
Chosen byAbi Lightfoot, Americas reporter
Fears are irrational. From spiders or heights to a fear of flying, there are no guidelines around what is or isn’t scary for people. Recognising this, South African fast-food chain Chicken Licken has unveiled its latest campaign, dedicated to those with a phobia of bones or cartilogenophobia.
Tackling the topic with a sense of humour that the chain has become known for, advertising agency Joe Public presents the ways that bone-phobia can manifest itself in everyday life. Bringing the phobic few together into a group therapy-like session to share an array of bone related experiences, sweet relief is found in the form of drumstick shaped SoulBites® – chicken nuggets that are, thankfully, boneless.
PETA - Dismember It Yourself
Chosen by Zara Naseer, EMEA reporter
No crocodiles were harmed in the making of PETA’s gory new campaign. But that puppet is really convincing.
Working with creative agency the community and director Dave Meyers, the animal rights organisation recently launched Erika Makes, a fake YouTube influencer teaching viewers how to make their own luxury goods. Her debut video titled ‘Croc Leather #DIY! Make Your Own “Hermès Birkin” Bag’, follows all the familiar tropes of the genre until we see the last item needed for the project. And it appears to be a live, three-year-old crocodile.
Plunging a screwdriver into its brain, her tutorial takes a horribly violent turn, highlighting exactly how the animal reacts to the cruelty enacted upon it. PETA’s message is driven home by these brutal visuals, made more upsetting in contrast to Erika’s flippancy. “Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell. After a while, crocodile!”
Then comes the kicker: the video recreates the actual violence and death real crocodiles endure for Hermès bags. It’ll certainly haunt me in the days to come.
Warburtons - The Inspection
Chosen by Olivia Atkins, EMEA news editor
‘The Inspection’ sees Olivia Colman lending her signature British wit in this tongue-in-cheek ad that celebrates the crumpet as a true cultural icon. Cleverly utilising the actor’s star appeal and mischievous sense of humour, the campaign offers a playful yet sincere homage to Warburtons’ legacy. She plays an overzealous officer from the fictional Department of National Treasures, sending the bakery into chaos as she inspects whether its crumpets deserve National Treasure status. It’s a perfect blend of celebrity and brand values – full of warmth, charm, and absurdity – that feels right at home in the Warburton's world, proving you don’t need puppets to hit the mark.
Irn-Bru - Nessie Nectar / Unicorn Tears
Chosen by Alex Reeves, managing editor, EMEA
There really is no brand like Irn-Bru. Over its almost 30-year relationship with Edinburgh-based creative agency Leith, Scotland’s national fizzy drink has built up a unique comic tone in its advertising that never fails to amuse and delight. So the agency’s swan song for the brand, before the account moves to London-based Lucky Generals, was always going to be an event. And the result is weird. And I love it.
Created to promote two flavours that promise to be even stranger than the usual Irn-Bru, these comic films about a ‘Nessie milker’ and a unicorn farmer harvesting bodily fluids from mythical creatures are exactly as silly as that sentence sounds. It’s played straight and it only makes it sillier. I want to taste these drinks. Although it will be hard not to think about the Loch Ness Monster’s teets in the process.
Samsung - The Lost Bills
Chosen by Sunna Coleman, Asia reporter
Trying to market a technical product can often lead to detail-heavy, informational advertising. But through a witty and whimsical spot, Samsung manages to brilliantly capture both the benefits of its new SmartThings app as well as viewers' attention.
One by one, we meet three children named Bill (a playful nod to Thai slang for banknotes) who enter the scene at a Lost and Found department via slide. Each child then states how they lost their mummy: "when my mom left the fridge door open", "when my mom fell asleep in front of the screen", "when she left the air conditioner turned on".
Through this story of lost children, Samsung highlights how many Thai households are currently losing money through wasted energy use, and how they could automatically optimise home appliances with its AI-powered app and save money on bills.
A highly engaging, well-crafted and memorable spot that uses the power of storytelling to make its point. Love it!
OKA - Plastic Blood
Chosen by Zhenya Tsenzharyk, UK editor
The alarm over the presence of microplastics in our environment has been ringing for a while and recently we’ve been learning just how many are accumulating in our bodies too. “The Human Brain May Contain as Much as a Spoon’s Worth of Microplastics, New Research Suggests,” read a February headline from The Smithsonian, quickly making its way around other news outlets and social media. A whole spoon’s worth?! That sounds pretty bad.
Brazilian biotech company OKA likewise finds the levels of microplastics in humans’ bodies a cause for concern. So, with the help of agency DM9, it set out to demonstrate what the microplastic amounts found in our bloodstream can be transformed into. It extracted microplastics from over 1,000 discarded bags of blood (450L) and used them to 3D-print familiar everyday plastic items: cups, straws and bottles, though sadly no spoons.
The resulting 3D items are central to an exhibition that opened in Sao Paulo and is currently touring Brazil, culminating at COP30 in Belém this November. For me, what works so well about this campaign is that it raises awareness – by making mundane objects profoundly disturbing – and it offers a solution: 100% biodegradable, compostable packaging OKA makes from yuca starch so that just maybe we don’t have to find out how many microplastics inside our bodies are too many.
KIND® Snacks Canada - Packed With Nuts
Chosen by Jordan Won Neufeldt, Canada reporter
There’s always something to be said for an advertisement that leans into physical, artistic craft to promote a product in question. After all, it often takes tremendous effort, innovation, and of course, outstanding creativity to come up with these sorts of approaches, which is exactly what makes McCann Canada’s latest work for KIND® Snacks Canada absolutely brilliant.
Put simply, the decision to tap into the country’s love of squirrels by creating fake mouths that look as though they’re stuffed cheek to cheek with the brand’s snack bars, place actual nuts inside them to lure these critters over, and then take photos to transform into out-of-home advertisements is wildly fun. But more than that, the results are endearing and cute, all while the insight backing the work shines through. (Also, kudos to the fact that the agency didn’t do unnecessary damage to the environment by using AI to get the desired result – I think that’s pretty commendable in this day and age, and frankly, the work is better for it).
Orkin - Pests are Smart, Orkin Pros are Smarter
Chosen by Ben Conway, Americas reporter
I'm a sucker for puppetry, so it's no surprise I've selected these grimy little pests from DDB Chicago and Orkin for our Work of the Week. The handcrafted, bug protagonists are teeming with character and a wry sense of humour, and their domestic surroundings have been designed with great attention to each filthy detail. Some of the spots make my skin crawl, but the witty writing balances out the creepy-crawly factor with funny, imaginative storytelling.
Revery - A Love Story
Chosen by Tará McKerr, Americas Reporter
13 minutes, I know. But once you lock in, you’ll forget about time.
The amount of work, care, and attention that has gone into this is incredible. Portland-based creative studio Revery, created the film to signify their rebrand, with a story about love being the centre of the human experience. It presents a series of snapshots of 25 real people telling their stories of love in every shape and form it takes. There’s a purity in the rawness of it. Gorgeous cinematography aside, the stories find their way into your chest.
Rather than an ad, Revery says it’s a love letter to humanity through storytelling. It’s a love letter to connection in a time where that feels more scarce and important than ever.
Coca-Cola - Shadows
Chosen by Paul Monan, awards director
This one is very worthy of discussion and there has certainly been a lot of that in the past few days – both in the LBB team and on the broader advertising internet. There’s no doubting the bravery that Coca-Cola has shown here, tearing up the brand guideline book by resisting the urge to include its colours or logos.
But we’ve seen things moving in this direction for a while – last year’s Immortal Award-winning ‘Recycle Me’ and Commendation-receiving ‘Thanks for Coke-Creating’ both tinkered with one of the world’s most iconic logos.
So it’s the latest instalment in an advertising trend for brand minimalism. And if you’re as big and recognisable as Coke, you’ve got a lot of awareness out there to draw on. So if anyone can do it, Coke can. Watch out for it in the print and outdoor categories during award season, to see whether the industry thinks it hit the mark. It’s certainly elegant, but will it sell fizzy drinks?
Paramount+ - Patrick Starship Enterprise
Chosen by April Summers, North America features lead
I reckon one thing I never thought I’d be writing about is a Spongebob Squarepants and Star Trek live-action mashup. That would be on my ‘Not Gonna Happen’ bingo card – if I had one. But both are Paramount+ IP and, in collaboration with Droga5, the focus of the streamer’s new star-studded live-action brand spot. And fans of either show (a LOT of people) will certainly get a kick out of seeing these two worlds collide for ‘Patrick Starship Enterprise’. Packed with fan favourite quotes and Easter eggs, this ad is the epitome of using iconicity to cater to the masses.
