December means Christmas ads and one of our two top scorers for Nokia by Mother falls into that category just about; another variation on the recurring theme that Christmas is about bringing people together, not handing out prezzies.
Mother, our Agency of the Year in 2016, has kept up the good work this year alongside our 2017 winner Wieden+Kennedy, which produced the best UK campaign of the year for Sainsbury’s, and twice winner and twice runner-up adam&eveDDB.
No Harvey Nichols from A&E this year (which might have got it over the line) but some interesting work for new or lesser-known clients. One such is the international Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), a visceral number ending on a guardedly optimistic note, which is what charity ads should do. Surely better than asking you to deposit your money in a bottomless pit of misery.
As for the best of the year, there’s a debate.
No unchallengeable stand-out this year so we’ll pick two, both for cars which is something of a miracle given the astonishing amount of car-sponsored schlock out there. Talk about money being poured down the drain.
First up is BBH for Audi.
A welcome return to form for agency and client.
Sharing with Jung von Matt for Mini’s mysteriously entitled John Cooper Works, its sporty model. Cooper was the British team owner who thought his supercharged minis could win the Monte Carlo Rally back in the 1960s.
If the best ads are about storytelling this is a compelling (and on-brief explanatory) story well told.
Anorak fact: The Mini Cooper had a slightly bigger engine than the standard Mini and twin carbs, but it was not supercharged.