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Seen and noted

Guest Judge: Sean Bryan, co-CCO, McCann North America

 GUEST JUDGE /BEST AD OF THE WEEK   WORLDWIDE    August 09, 2021 13:06 (Edited: February 17, 2023 05:19)
BEST TV
Winner: Dick's Sporting Goods 'Miss America'. I love this spot for a couple of reasons. First, it's a fantastic, subversive use of music. When the lyric about "There she is, your ideal..." hit over a shot of a boxer with a cut on her eye, I was absolutely on board for the ride. And then, they didn't shy away from making every shot as gritty and aggressive as they could be. It makes a really smart point about women and sports, and our changing perceptions of what it means to be a role model, without actually saying anything at all.

Runner Up: Dubai Tourism 'Dubai Presents'. This one is just a production value tour de force. It's shot as well as any Hollywood action movie, and by bringing a little bit of "2 Fast 2 Furious" excitement to a tourism campaign, as opposed to the stock serene shots of hotel pools, they might succeed in getting new people interested in a trip to Dubai.

BEST PRINT
Winner: Annahar Newspaper '#InnocentTruth'. Sometimes you have to recognize work for just being brave. And Annahar's integrated campaign, including this print work, really is. It's not easy for a journalist or a paper to stand up for what is right these days in any country. But a year after the horrible explosion in Beirut, Annahar uses the haunting memories of children to remind us all that, while nothing has changed, nothing has been forgotten either.

Runner Up: Bueno Beans 'Cheetah'. Very nice, smart visual work for Bueno Beans out of Mexico. They have a simple point, that their beans cook faster than other options (if you have have ever made black beans you know, it takes forever). And they came up with a simple and unforgettable way to convey that benefit... fast.

BEST OUTDOOR
Winner: KFC 'Disguises'. The best outdoor can stop you and convey something in an instant. And this one does exactly that, by borrowing a bit of visual identity from another well-known brand. By putting KFC into the visual language of Ikea, and simply pronouncing "You already know where it is", this brilliantly accomplishes the oldest task for an OOH billboard - telling people where the restaurant is located. Very smart.

Runner Up: Alibaba Group/WWF 'Fading Sea Creatures'. This was cool, a fairly involved demonstration of what human trash is doing to the seas. It was a painting made from thermochromic paint on a collection of masks, that disappears when it goes into the water. Just like so many species are disappearing, as our ocean trash crowds them out. It made me think about the impact of a new thing we are all carrying around, and throwing out every day - masks.

BEST INTERACTIVE
Winner: Samsung Galaxy 'Performance Enhancing Music'. As the Olympic games conclude, this was a pretty interesting use of tech to solve a problem athletes everywhere are facing. There are no fans, there are no crowded stadiums, and athletes are not hearing anything... motivating. Just creepy silence. Samsung fills that void with custom built tracks, designed for the athlete and their sport, to actually push them on to perform at their best. This is one of those ideas that get you thinking, what else can the perfect music improve?

Runner Up: *Chevrolet 'TikTok with a Beat'. With street performers currently banned (presumably because of Covid), Chevy has a simple and ingenious way to bring music back to the streets. By putting drum sensors on a steering wheel, and an amazing drummer in the driver's seat. I just loved watching him create new combos of sounds, including the horn, with this brand new kind of percussion. Chevy should definitely make this a option on their 2022 models.



https://www.bestadsontv.com/news/upload/Sean headshot[1].jpg
This week's guest judge is Sean Bryan, co-chief creative officer at McCann North America.

Sean was named co-chief creative officer of McCann North America in 2020, after serving as co-chief creative officer for McCann New York the previous eight years. He also serves as global CCO on the Microsoft account.

In his tenure as co-CCO of McCann New York, with his longtime partner Tom Murphy, the agency became one of the most successful and awarded agencies in the world. Every year continues to bring more recognition to the agency's North American operations. In 2021, McCann New York took home the highest honors at the D&D Awards, the rarely-awarded Black Pencil, for its brave and powerful "True Name" campaign for Mastercard; that campaign also won the 2021 Andy for the Bravest Work of the Year. McCann New York was named The Webby Awards Agency of the Year for 2021. In 2020, McCann New York was named the most creative Agency of the Year at the WARC effectiveness awards and was named Global Agency of the Year at the Epica Awards.

McCann North America was ranked the #1 Most Effective Agency Network in North America in the 2019 Global Effie Effectiveness Index. McCann New York was named the #2 agency of the year globally at the 2019 Cannes International Festival of Creativity; McCann New York won more than 20 Lions every year between 2016 and 2019, a feat no other agency ever accomplished. McCann New York was named Agency of the Year at the 2019 Clio Awards, Agency of the Year at the 2019 Jay Chiat Awards for Strategic Excellence (where it also shared, with Microsoft, the Grand Prix for Microsoft's "Changing the Game" campaign for the Xbox Adaptive Controller.) McCann New York was named to the 2019 Ad Age Agency "A-List" for the fourth consecutive year. And McCann New York won the Grand Prix for Good at the 2019 Andy Awards.

The growing mountain of creative awards for McCann New York and McCann North America recognizes the agency's unique ability to deliver the best work for the agency's largest global clients. McCann's work - "True Name" for Mastercard. "Changing the Game" for Microsoft, "Fearless Girl" for State Street Global Advisors -- is some of the most celebrated creative work of the past decade and has transcended Madison Avenue to become part of global creative culture. McCann's work for social good, including multiple campaigns for The March For Our Lives gun-control movement, raised the bar for what can be achieved through work that supports worthy causes.

In his 25 years as an industry creative director, Sean has always loved tackling big problems and making big brands relevant in people's lives. Sean helped launch the McDonald's "I'm Lovin' It" campaign in 2003 at DDB Chicago and worked on everything from The U.S. Army to Bud Light to the Staples "Easy Button." Sean is particularly experienced on technology brands. In addition to helping Microsoft launch Windows 10 and the Surface Pro, he has 14 years of experience on Verizon. Sean also helped to launch the award-winning "Field Trip To Mars" campaign for Lockheed Martin.

Sean and his co-CCO Tom Murphy have been a creative team since they were junior creatives at JWT New York, one of the longest-running partnerships in the industry. In addition to their advertising endeavors, Sean and Tom have published four highly-regarded illustrated children's books.

Sean lives in Darien, Connecticut with his wife, two kids, and a large menagerie of pets and barnyard animals.


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