Alexa's Burnout
Award: Graphite Pencil
Graphite Pencil / Radio & Audio / Tactical / 2021
How to cook? How to homeschool? How to work out at home? Lockdown brought many questions. But many people forgot the most important of all: how am I feeling? This led to a rise in burnout syndrome affecting one in three employed Brazilians. To raise awareness around this hard-to-spot matter, Africa used a seemingly unbreakable home worker: Amazon's Alexa. For one day, the most frequent requests and questions made by users were answered inappropriately, so people could relate to burnout symptoms.
What did the judges have to say?
"I like how this work ‘hacked’ a popular voice search assistant to draw attention to the effects of stress and burnout in an unexpected way. I also like that it ran for one day only, turning big media conversation towards the issue. Really clever."
Tseliso Rangaka, Chief Creative Officer, FCB Joburg
Are you credited on this winning entry?
If you've been awarded Wood Pencil or above, drop us your details for further information about how you can order your D&AD Pencil. If you've previously won In Book or a Nomination and would like to celebrate your achievement with a Wood or Graphite Pencil, please let us know.