MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The creative industry is brimming with tons of amazing ideas, so it’s no surprise that there’s never a shortage of great campaigns to admire and celebrate.
From gripping stories and new perspectives that embody what a brand stands for to new fun ways people can engage with a brand, here are campaigns that caught adobo Magazine’s eye this week:
RC Cola and Mediabrands Content Studio’s wild history tour
RC Cola’s new film is a trip into the past, and in this weird tour of history, it revisits four events that changed the world: the discovery of fire, the creation of the Pyramids, the invention of the Internet, and, of course, the first time someone thought to pair sandals with socks. Each turning point happens because the manically strange puppet sidekick — pure practical and zero CGI to add a layer of nostalgia and surrealism — asks ‘Why not?’ The ad is charming, wonderfully bizarre, and poses the soda brand as one that gives you the push you need to make decisions that can change the world.
Dole Sunshine’s bold open letter to the Pope
The pope probably won’t grant Dole Sunshine’s request, but this campaign definitely isn’t about getting that request granted. It’s about making such a bold, unsuspected, and very amusing request to begin with. And what request can fill that criteria better than what Dole did: asking the Pope to change the Bible to replace the forbidden fruit (usually represented as the apple) with a less healthy food item. Granted or not, publishing the open letter with such a bold request in the Pope’s newspaper of choice, La Repubblica, definitely made quite a statement and got everyone else’s attention.
Oniria\TBWA and Skol’s accessible meme museum
The beauty of memes is that they’re built on a universal understanding of a certain joke or reference. But the thing is, with many memes being visual, they’re not as universal as one may think. So, to bridge the gap between iconic memes and people who are blind or visually impaired, Oniria\TBWA and Skol launched a meme museum that can be experienced through touch or hearing. At the museum, people can interact with 3D versions of the iconic memes — from the timeless shocked Pikachu face to the troll face that started it all — they can touch and learn about their contexts and history whether by reading descriptions written in braille or listening to an audio guide.
Pepsi’s celebration of Gen Z’s relationship with food
In their new campaign by VaynerMedia, Pepsi highlights the messiness and ease of Gen Z when they’re eating their favorite foods at home — paired with a glass of Pepsi of course. The film is a fun and charming celebration of how Gen Z’s relationship with their comfort food brings out their true, unfiltered selves and becomes a way through which they connect with that part of themselves and their peers. It reminds everyone that these comfortable, imperfect moments are where one can get the most joy out of their favorite food.
Bodyform’s fight against #Periodsomnia and the period sleep gap
Bodyform doesn’t shy away from the “ugly” realities of being on your period. This film by AMV BBDO doesn’t go for the typical graphics of blue liquid spilling onto a pad or women squirming a little in discomfort. Rather, they showed intimate and vivid shots of people of all genders (including trans men and nonbinary people) experiencing the realities of periods at night — having to layer multiple pairs of underwear to avoid leaks, tossing and turning violently from the pain and unease, sleeping in ridiculous positions in the hopes of alleviating cramps, staining the bed red, and so much more.
BBDO Bangkok and Clean & Clear’s self-aware ad for Gen Z
BBDO Bangkok and Clean & Clear’s new ad opens like way too many campaigns targeted at Gen Z — young people moving around hyper-energetically and spewing out out-of-place slang in a video full of bright, clashing colors. Then, it zooms out to two high school students cringing at the poor attempt to understand teenagers. The ad quickly becomes more self-aware and satirical, amping up the cliches — rapping, skateboards, vertical videos that mimic mobile social media screens — before giving up and just straight up offering the two girls the product and conceding that while they don’t understand teenagers, they understand what every face needs.
Here’s a look back at adobo magazine’s weekly campaign picks.
