Seen and noted

Everybody talks about the death of Ideology and the vast use of fake news by our leaders, who are supposed to serve as our moral compass... well most of them fail to do so. Ironically, the ones who take the role of defending our basic human ideologies and raise social agendas such as gender equality, racism, immigration issues... The ones who remind us where we come from and our history are rather the brands. Those who, for years, were considered the flag ship of cynicism find themselves entering the moral vacuum and taking the role of making the world a little better. We all need to celebrate work that tries to shatter the existing stereotypes in marketing messages and have an important impact on culture.

BEST TV
Winner - Audi: Daughter. I love that Audi used the Super Bowl huge event to promote gender pay equality, a female empowerment message. It's not the first time its being done but still... this ad is right on the spot and it certainly moves. Hope that Audi are implementing it on themselves, BTW the director of this ad is a woman, so I guess they do.

Runner-up - Budweiser: Born the hard way. 60 seconds which are the essence of the American dream... the Super Bowl is the perfect place to air it. And well... it's another ad that probably tries to imply something to their new president regarding the immigrants issue.

BEST PRINT
Winner - Dove: Alternative facts. I chose it because I love the courage for taking a stand where most brands usually prefer not to, I love the timing and mostly because it made me laugh.

Runner-up - Land Rover: Everywhere. Just a little disclosure; I am familiar with the guy who made that ad... I really like that one because I feel it was there since the day Land Rover launched but nobody saw it... it's smart and it perfectly describes what an all-terrain vehicle is all about.

BEST OUTDOOR
Winner - Tostitos: The party safe bag. By far the best one in this category. I wish it was mine and I guess it's enough of a reason for me to choose it as pick of the week.

Runner-up - Cashmere toilet paper: Now streaming. I like the insight and the media, in my opinion, it lacks the humor of the insight.

BEST INTERACTIVE
Winner - Trump with love. What a great idea, taking the man who is the symbol of inappropriate and flipping his words to promote love and tolerance. Gotta say that the best part is not hearing Trump say the line you wrote for him but the answers he gives when the words you enter are missing... brilliant.

Runner-up - Snickers: Wrestler. "You're Not You When You're Hungry", well it's a great starting point but still a difficult challenge for new ideas and innovation and still... this YouTube Preroll is so much fun that I played with it 5 times. Great stuff.

Honorable mention - Xin cafe: Sonic sweetener. This is CRAZY. I haven't tried it, but if this thing works than it's brilliant. It sounds like a small scale pilot (hope I'm not mistaking) in any case... wow. Dealing with this important issue with a technological physiological solution... very innovative.




This week's guest judge is Sharon Refael, executive creative director, Y&R, Israel.

Sharon started his advertising career as a (too energetic) copywriter at Y&R Tel-Aviv, where he worked on brands such as Mercedes-Benz, Heinz, The Yellow-Pages and Orange.

After a few years, Sharon was promoted to creative team leader and in 2011 he moved to Saatchi & Saatchi to act as a creative director (which turned out to be a great idea). After about 5 years Sharon decided to complete his round and get back to the place he started, this time as an ECD.

Sharon is passionate about what he does. An attitude that has paid off as he's picked up a few awards for it along the way at Cannes Lions, New York Festival, Eurobest, Clios, Fab, Epica, One Show and more...