TBWA\Dublin's Kerry Mahony Wins ‘The Great Reset’ Industry Competition

The Great Reset, an initiative by the Purpose Disruptors that launched in July, has announced the winners of its UK creative competition. Over 300 people from 30 competing agencies contributed to the campaign. Kerry Mahony, a 22-year-old copywriting intern at TBWA\Dublin, has been announced as one of the winners. The Irish arm of the competition will launch in early 2021. 

Due to the pause during lockdown, global emissions will be down 7% by the end of 2020. The Great Reset campaign sets out to encourage the advertising, PR and communications industries to reset during this time by ‘resetting ourselves, our work and our impact’ with a detailed white paper (co-authored by strategists at Gravity Road and THINKHOUSE) explaining why and how. 

The brief asked the creative and advertising industry to “celebrate the accidental climate heroes of Britain and encourage them to make it a badge of honour.” The response in the UK was staggering. Over 200 creative ideas were submitted from over 30 different agencies and many freelancers across the industry in Ireland, the UK, US and Amsterdam UK, US and other countries. The group of winners span a diverse range of creative backgrounds, ages and companies; including a junior designer from ITV, senior creative duo from Elvis, individuals from experience agency Household, radio pro’s from Global Radio, and a collective of industry veterans who’ve reunited after retirement, to undo their ‘consumerist capitalism wrongs’ of the 80s and 90s. 

Kerry Mahony of TBWA\Dublin, who recently completed an MSc in Advertising in TU Dublin, created a winning radio ad - ‘Message To Mum.’ This will be her first big piece of advertising work to be produced and put out into the world.

On her decision to get involved in The Great Reset, Mahony explains: “I've always cared a lot about the environment and sustainability. However, it's easy to feel like a small fish in a big pond, and like your actions don't make a difference. So when I saw The Great Reset brief, I loved the concept behind it, and thought it was a way I could use my skills for the greater good. It felt like a competition with a difference - not about awards, but about the planet.”

Her radio ad personifies Mother Earth as an actual mother, leaving a voicemail for her child. 

Kerry adds: “I wrote the script while at my mum's house in lockdown. I was thinking about how COVID has affected lots of people's familial relationships. Some people moved back in with their parents, working from home from their teenage bedrooms, while others socially distanced and went months without seeing theirs. I thought that personifying Mother Earth as an actual mother would be a lovely way to tap into the COVID zeitgeist, and hopefully tug on people's heartstrings.”

She hopes that the campaign will spark some serious conversation within the advertising sphere about “our personal responsibility with regards to climate change… This can extend as far as looking at whether the clients we work with align to our personal morals, or trying to respond to briefs in a way that does not contribute unnecessarily to waste.”

The work goes live now in UK media, and a similar Irish-specific initiative is in the works for early 2021. The Great Reset Ireland team, with individuals from THINKHOUSE, Group M, Mindshare, Folk Wunderman Thompson, Havas, Behaviours and Attitudes, McCann Dublin, RTÉ and others have already pledged to be involved, as more continue to sign up. The Irish creative brief will be developed collaboratively with individuals across the creative and communications industry in Ireland, through a workshop which will be held on November 6th. The creative brief will launch on November 27th, with submission responses due in January 2021.