Work of the Week: 22/04/22
In this industry, we know that there is always a symbiotic relationship between the craft of a piece of work and its message. We enjoy beautifully shot and animated productions and we commend campaigns that have something to say, stand by and share with the world. Marrying these two important aspects can be challenging and when it is done successfully, the results usually some of the most memorable, beloved and enjoyable projects of the week (and - for the brand and people behind the scenes - hopefully the year, decade and longer).
This week’s selection of creative highlights includes some wonderfully crafted visual delights that blend live-action with animation and VFX, as well as some hard-hitting and truly impactful campaigns from charities that deliver a powerful message.
Hennessy’s Slam Dunk
Tipping off the list, rappers’ favourite cognac, Hennessy, slam dunks into summer with an NBA collaboration. Droga5 New York developed ‘Game Never Stops’ with director and music producer Maceo Frost, celebrating the global influence that NBA and basketball have had throughout culture.
VOLT’s High Speed Roller Coaster
Keeping up with this energetic pace, VOLT - the merger between Virgin and O2 - arrive on the high-speed internet scene with Riff Raff director Rich Hall’s turbo-charged spot. It’s an ode to cyber superpower and some enviable internet packages that turns people into manga characters and has robots fighting to an Iggy Pop soundtrack.
GoCart Forgotten Passwords
From the fast-paced to the frenetic, bordering manic, this Flipt campaign captures the pain of forgetting your password at a crucial moment. With creative from Digitas and director Tiny Bullet’s distinctive combo of style and wit brings that oh-so-relatable 21st century irritant to life with flair.
Guns Down America’s Survivor Reviews
The YouTube review video is a familiar feature in our online viewing, but this shocking campaign turns the format on its head by platforming gun violence survivors as they ‘review’ the very weapons that injured them.
Movember’s Non-Fungible Testicles
There’s a lot of healthy scepticism around NFTs, and plenty who think the whole affair is a bunch of balls. Agency MRM and artist MISHKA NYC have taken that quite literally with the excellently-named Non-Fungible Testicles, a project created for Movember designed to remind men to check their bits regularly.
Vaseline’s See My Skin
When it comes to researching skin conditions, less than 6% of image-based search results show conditions on skin of colour. Photos, particularly those depicting skin conditions are overwhelmingly on Caucasian skin, leaving people of colour with few answers and untreated conditions. To plug this gap, Vaseline and Edelman have created the See My Skin database.
Earth Day Canada’s Protest Sickie
This Earth Day, Sid Lee is urging us all to pull a sickie en masse. Why? Because we’re all suffering with eco anxiety and we need to make a collective statement.
