D&AD’s new president for 2022–23 is Richard Brim. He is the Chief Creative Officer of adam&eveDDB, and currently has 72 D&AD awards credited to his name. In 2022, the agency picked up a Black Pencil for Hopeline19 – a free phone service for the nation to leave messages for frontline workers – and a Yellow Pencil for the irreverent ad for Twix, Bears. Here, as told to Brittaney Kiefer, Europe Creative Editor at Adweek, Brim discusses that dichotomy and the balance between fun and purpose-driven work, and how the industry can inspire much needed new talent to want to take part.
When I look through D&AD Annuals from years gone by, most of the work I’d see winning was for a product or service. More recently, purpose-driven work has emerged as king, with most winning campaigns being either cause related or purpose driven.
Don’t get me wrong, there will always be a need for genuine and authentic purpose. We’re living in extraordinary times. Currently, we are recovering from the pandemic, and heading straight into a climate crisis, social unrest, and a looming global recession. But more and more frequently I see campaigns where purpose has been awkwardly crow-barred in – sometimes making a mockery of the very brief it set out to answer. We’ve lost sight of the important distinction between an individual brand’s purpose, and every brand campaign needing to embrace a greater purpose to be successful.
Our industry has the talent, skill, and power to influence brand and consumer behaviour to begin to address some of the world’s most pressing problems, and we should put this to use in sincere and meaningful ways. But I would also like to see the industry make a collective effort to be proud of the fact that, ultimately, our job as advertisers is to sell things, and remember that we can do that with humour, while inspiring future generations to work in advertising.
When the pandemic hit, most creatives’ (including myself) natural instinct was to use our skills to try and help in whatever way we could. That comes from a genuine desire to use our skills and platforms for good. This year, adam&eveDDB won a D&AD Black Pencil for Hopeline19 for the charity Frontline19, which supports frontline NHS workers who were affected by the pandemic. The campaign has a purpose at its heart, and it came from a genuine desire as an agency to use our skills to help during Covid-19.
On the flipside, we won a coveted Yellow Pencil in Film for Twix’s Bears, a 30-second TV ad about a chocolate bar: a silly gem of an ad that embraces dark humour to increase penetration and sales. Perhaps this win was a message from the jury that they still appreciate and want to see more of the silly, fun, confident stuff.
Being silly, fun, and confident is attractive – we’re always drawn to the funniest and most confident person in the room. It's a powerfully persuasive tool in our creative arsenal that not only makes for better, more effective work, but it also injects a sense of joy back into our industry – something that I think we've lost a little in recent years. We need to bring that back to make sure we continue attracting the best talent possible. We’d definitely be a more appealing industry to join if our output seemed fun and joyful, as well as meaningful.
For me, beauty comes from being able to do both. Purpose and silly. Save the world and laugh at it. Even better: make the world a better place with fun and humour. We all know that being creative means not staying in one lane. The best creatives amongst us strive to avoid a house style. The best ideas punch you from different angles. Look at someone like designer Thomas Heatherwick: his work is always surprising, you never have a clue what the next thing’s going to look like, you just know it’s going to be amazing and well thought out. We should all aim to surprise and move people with a whole smorgasbord of emotions with the work we produce, whether it’s a lighthearted bit of fun for a chocolate bar, or a lifeline of support for key workers during a time of crisis. We should use all of the tools in our toolbox, because it’s so much more exciting when we do.