The Great Reset winners: Judged by the New Blood Academy

The Great Reset, an initiative by the Purpose Disruptors that launched in July, has announced the winners of its creative competition. The winning work, as judged by D&AD’s New Blood Academy with WPP, will form part of The Great Reset’s national awareness campaign, set to go live in media spaces across the UK from 25 September 2020, including DOOH, press, radio and digital media. 

In an industry first, 59 of the best global emerging talent from D&AD’s New Blood Academy with WPP were handed the power to decide the winning work. The significance of the next generation of creative leaders choosing work that could directly impact upon their future was not lost on the Gen Zers, with one student, Greg McIndoe saying: “Graduating in a year like 2020 especially, it has been easy to worry that we will be forgotten about. The fact that The Great Reset are not only listening to us but trusting our opinions in this way is so encouraging.”

Winning creative work was selected in response to the creative brief developed by BBH’s Chief Strategy Officer, Will Lion in August. 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.” 

Winning work includes; press ad ‘Thanks for Nothing’; digital outdoor campaign ‘The Great Pause’; radio ads ‘Letters to you’ and ‘Message to Mum’; digital campaign ‘#ShiftHappens’; WeTransfer wallpapers ‘Everything’s Going Green’ and ‘Thanks for Nothing’ and an experience idea called ‘Little Reset Brewing Co’. Each element of the campaign works to support the overarching message that during lockdown, our collective behaviour change led to a positive environmental outcome - one we now need to maintain. The campaign has a dual purpose, signifying the shift that needs to happen in society, whilst showing how the creative industry has a responsibility to use its creativity to help. 

The Great Pause dramatises one fact - when old habits were put on pause emissions were reduced. We want to jog people’s memories of this, for them to remember the clear skies, and pollution free cities. The pause symbol is a simple elegant reminder of what everyone can achieve collectively with simple actions.

Winners:
Florence Wilson, Designer, ITV Creative.
Anton Ezer, freelance creative working across advertising and broadcast.

In a conscious departure from the tone and communications typically associated with climate change, ‘Thanks for Nothing’ uses provocative, irreverent language from the off to surprise and intrigue our audience into a conversation they have traditionally disassociated themselves from. It juxtaposes the eco warrior stereotype with behaviours our audience has relished over lockdown, before revealing that actually, such behaviours made a significant difference to the planet too. It talks to those who don‘t actually realise they have done anything. But as it turns out, together,  all their ‘nothing’ has the power to change everything.

Winners:
Creative team Rhys Hughes & Barret Helander, Elvis

Agency: Elvis
Creatives: Rhys Hughes & Barret Helander
Creative Director: Rob Griffiths
Executive Creative Director: Neale Horrigan
Senior Strategist: Jenna Russell
Strategy Director: Camilla Yates
Managing Partner: Caroline Davison
Designer: Beth Stanbridge
Artworker: Danny Mitchell

‘Letters to You’ is  a clear, direct message to the people who can make a difference, from the people who will benefit. A message from the future, to the present  - from our future children, from our future selves. It  shows the positive outcome of behaviours we're all currently adopting, and it promises that these small, every day changes will benefit us in a future not that far away. Also, there are jokes.

Winners:
Richard Spalding & John Hale

Download and listen to the winning work.

‘Message to Mum’ 

“I got involved with The Great Reset after getting inspired by the brief and white paper urging advertisers to take a stand against climate change. As a young creative, I always aim to create work that stands for something that speaks to real issues. The radio ad, Message to Mum, has been my first 'real' piece of advertising put out into the world, and I'm honoured it's for a cause I'm so passionate about."

Winners:
Kerry Mahony (Intern, TBWA Dublin)

Download and listen to the winning work.

The Shift Happens idea won the digital category and turns a well-known expression on its head as it celebrates the positive behaviour changes we've all made during lockdown: “#ShiftHappens when we all keep peddling – During lockdown the number of cyclists on our roads doubled resulting in 7% less emissions – keep it up UK.” The work will be live in digital media spaces including Stylist.co.uk. In addition, the winners have turned their clever idea to sustainable merchandise, creating parody Trump red caps branded with the phrase “Make Shift Happen”.

Winners:
KAROSHI (Japanese word for ‘Death from overwork’)

Simon Confino
Murray Partridge
Cathy Heng
Jade Trott

What if the key to unlocking the Climate crisis is sitting on the table in front of us? What I’d the Great British brew became a catalyst to rally a nation to change the way they think, feel and act? Introducing The Little Reset Brew Co. (LRBC). A tea company with a difference. Every LRBC tea bag comes with a label displaying one of many, many messages that remind, inspire and reinforce accidental climate hero actions - a nudge to cycle not drive, to cook plant-based not meat, to staycation not fly. This is a D2C subscription model for a social impact company, started with crowd sourced funding from within the creative industries.

Winners:
Household

Strategist: Pratik Vyas 
Senior Designer: Kevin Chote 
Design Director: Tom Howlett 
Managing Director: Paul Bentley

In the aftermath of the lockdown, the rainbow became a ubiquitous symbol of hope and also served as a mark of thanks, to key workers for their brave commitment to helping us, as a nation to cope with the coronavirus pandemic. ‘Everything’s Going Green’ graphically joins the dots with little need of explanation. It visually shows the classic rainbow graphic turning green. Out of lockdown comes the possibility of a greener future. 

Winners:
Creative: Adrian Talbot
​Agency: Intro UK

‘Thanks for Nothing’ focuses on WFH as a new lockdown behaviour, one that people don’t realise had a positive environmental impact. In their witty campaign they celebrate the unsung heros doing little things that together have the power to impact the big things. They show how ‘slaying in your slippers’ is also a way of reducing your carbon footprint and this is not nothing, it is everything.

To find out more information on the winning work head over to The Great Reset, and to find out more about the D&AD New Blood Academy with WPP head over here.