MANILA – We got 99 fake news items but this ain’t one: Albert Millar, copywriter, and Alyssa Babasa, junior art director at J. Walter Thompson Philippines are the country’s official representatives to the Young Lions competition happening on June in Cannes, France.
The duo bested other Young Lions aspirants that competed in the Young Creatives Competition conducted at Kidlat Awards 2017 in Boracay last March.
“We didn’t know how we felt. It’s just so random. It was surreal. But we’re happy of course. We’re excited. But most of all we feel very grateful that we’re going to be the representatives of the Philippines and hopefully we can bring home the award.”
Tasked to create a print campaign to encourage people to trust credible news and avoid sharing fake ones, team JWT came up with a simple but effective way to send the message across.
“First, we tackled the different things that could result if you believe in fake news, what negative consequences could come out. When fake news becomes a common thing online. We listed various insights, various executions to portray those insights online and we ate a lot and slept a lot, too,” shared Babasa.
“We grouped it up into two groups, the first executions were all about the online Filipino and the other one just really a simple message on how to trust credible news. Just that simple message to trust Inquirer.”
On how they’re preparing for probably one of the biggest competitions of their lives, the duo thinks that there’s no better way to do it than by doing what they do. “Basically, we’re just doing our work and trying to do it really well,” said Millar. “We’re reviewing print ads from before, things that already won awards in Cannes and just trying to dissect what creates great work.”
As Young Lions participants, Babasa and Millar also get to experience the prestigious Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
“I’m really looking forward to the talks and also meeting a lot of creative people. I really want to meet the greats. I want to meet my fellow young creatives and just really be inspired,” commented Babasa.
“It’s an opportunity to meet people and share more ideas with each other. It’s something that most of us are just blessed to experience. Minsan lang tayo makapunta ng ibang bansa para makipag-usap sa mga tao. Sa ibang kapwa creatives. That’s one thing and of course, we’re looking forward to creating great work. Even better work pa than we did,” added Millar.
Watch our interview with Albert and Alyssa:
