Canadian Award Show Cryogenically Freezes Canada's Top Creative Brain

This year marks the 100th anniversary of Canada’s preeminent advertising award show, The Marketing Awards. Established in 1922, The Marketing Awards is one of the longest-running advertising and design award shows in the world, predating even the Cannes Lions by over two decades. The Marketing Awards has traditionally been a springboard for many internationally awarded Canadian campaigns including Always’ Like a Girl, Dove’s Courage is Beautiful, McDonald’s Follow the Arches, Viagra’s Bleep, Diamond Shreddies and Dove Evolution.

To mark their 100th year recognising Canada’s best creative work, The Marketing Awards is offering to cryogenically freeze Canada’s top creative mind. Past Gold Marketing Award-Winners can apply at CryogenicCreative.com. They’ll need to answer an application including questions like, “How big is your ego on a scale from 1-10?” “How many Cannes yacht parties have you crashed?” and most importantly, “Do you agree to be cryogenically frozen?”

To be eligible to be cryogenically frozen, candidates will have to have won a Gold Marketing Award at some point over the past 100 years. This eliminates major global talent from eligibility such as legends David Droga, Susan Credle, Susan Hoffman, Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein, as mentioned in the humorous campaign video. 

The campaign also includes a social video that takes the viewer inside the jury room to hear the judges humorously debate the merits of a campaign, with the medal colour of the trophy changing as they trade jabs. Print and web banners poke fun at how long the Marketing Awards have been around, featuring headlines like “We’ve been around so long, our first annual cost 15 cents,” and “We’ve been around so long, our 1922 winners include the launch campaign for the front-lacing corset.

“We wanted to do something special to celebrate the 100th year of The Marketing Awards. This campaign pays tribute to the show’s history, while looking forward to the next 100 years of Canadian advertising,” said Mary Maddever, EVP & editorial director at Brunico.

The campaign was developed by creative agency Zulu Alpha Kilo. “The Marketing Awards has a long legacy of helping to set the bar for creativity in Canada over the last century,” said Zak Mroueh, CCO & founder of Zulu Alpha Kilo and Co-Chair of this year’s 100th Marketing Awards.

The deadline to enter the 100th Marketing Awards is February 18th and the annual show will take place in June 2022.