D&AD’s first Impact Awards for good go to Intermarché and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense
Britain’s D&AD has given its first batch of Impact Awards at Advertising Week in New York. The awards are given to companies who benefit society as well as themselves.
87 Impact pencils in shades from wood to black were awarded with the top prizes – black pencils – going to Intermarché and agency Marcel for Inglorius Fruits and Vegetables and campaigning group Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense in America for its Taking Aim At Corporate America campaign by Grey Canada.
The jury leaders were Jamie Oliver and Richard Curtis and judges included David Droga, Squarespace CEO Anthony Casalena, Airbnb head of marketing EMEA Alex Dimiziani; Girl Souts of America’s Andrea Bastiani Archibald and One Young World Founder Kate Robertson, formerly of Havas.
The juries are said to combine three beliefs: the need for businesses to have purpose beyond profit; belief in the power of creativity to create change and be a force for good and belief in the crucial role of brands and business in creating a better, fairer more sustainable world. Sting was the warm-up act for the event.
D&AD CEO Tim Lindsay said: “We’re in a post-CSR environment in which businesses are now acutely aware that consumers are demanding ethical, as well as financial, value from their products and services. Tokenistic projects no longer hold any weight for customers: global industry cannot afford to neglect the imperative that their bottom line must now be driven by purpose as well as profit. The sustainability of business and the planet relies on this shift in attitude and behaviour, at every level of business.
“D&AD Impact is designed to highlight and celebrate examples of creative excellence that we can admire and emulate – the winners are case studies for creating a better future.”
CEO Lindsay has had a busy if sometimes contentious reign at the venerable creative charity. Dishing out wooden pencils (as opposed to mentions in the D&AD Annual) has aroused opposition with some seeing it as primarily a revenue-raising exercise.
But he has helped to make D&AD a bigger international force and has also placed many of D&AD’s eggs firmly in the good works basket, as here.
But are brands and their owners really the force for good D&AD (and Advertising Week) would like to believe? Every day seems to bring news of some major corporate up to no good. So a different kind of jury is still out on this one.
