Gabby's WORD 12 April 2012

Thursday 19th April sees the Little Black Book team join the winners of the 2012 D&AD at London’s IMAX cinema. This year, the award show is celebrating its 50th year. That’s 50 years of celebrating outstanding design and advertising and this year sees the launch of the White Pencil, to be awarded to a creative idea that changes the world for the better. An award that recognises the incredible power a strong and inspired idea can have. Quite a change from the stereotypical viewpoint that advertising is all about selling you useless stuff and a complete reflection on the times we live in. We are currently existing in a period of time where businesses are more conscious of their social responsibility, a time when the individual is aware of the power that they have to make a difference. 

 

According to Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi’s ECDs Maxi Itzkoff / Mariano Serkin, "the best award you can get in this industry is a White Pencil… We are obsessed with wining one”. It’s not hard to think why, especially when Ambassador to the awards, Archbishop Desmond Tutu is quoted as saying, "To do good, you must act. To encourage others to do good, you must communicate. I applaud the aims of D&AD's White Pencil to ask those people with the strongest communication skills to act, to encourage others to act, and for that action to spread around the world."

 

Last month I was lucky enough to spend time with D&AD CEO, Tim Lindsay and D&AD President, Rosie Arnold. We’ll be sharing the interview with you on Tuesday, next week. For now, I can’t help but wonder what great work we shall see and what will win this great new award. Which makes me think of two great campaigns from the last few years that I love and that I hold a huge amount of respect for. The first would be the work of Leo Burnett for Earth Hour, the global grass-roots movement that encourages individuals, business and governments across the world to take positive actions for their environments. Beginning in 2007, WWF Australia inspired Sydney residents to show their support for climate change action by switching off their lights off for an ‘Earth Hour’. That year, 2.2 million individuals and 2,000 businesses took part. The following year, the whole of Australia took part and Toronto, Canada signed up and in 2011, Earth Hour saw hundreds of millions of people take part in over 135 countries. This year’s event, which occurred on the last Saturday of March was no different, and the countdown for 2013 has already begun. Check out this short film on the event and get inspired to make a note to participate in the years to come: http://bit.ly/xnLElw. . 

 

Another campaign that I love is Droga5’s ‘Tap Project’. Beginning in 2007, and raising funds to support UNICEF’s efforts to provide clean water to children globally, the project asks restaurant goers in NYC to donate $1 for the tap water that they usually enjoy for free. Since it began, the campaign has raised nearly $3million and, this March celebrated it’s sixth year. Find out more at http://www.tapproject.org/about/.

 

These are just a couple of examples of work that can make a positive change to the world… There are so many more. More that I should know about and discuss, but these two resonate and mean something for me – I’ve taken part in both of them since their launch and I still take part every year.

 

Looking forward to seeing what the D&AD have in store for us next week. Don’t forget to check out our interview with Tim and Rosie next week and if you’re attending on the 19th, make sure to say ‘hello’ to us. 

 

Have a great weekend,

~ Gabby