Review of the Year: Our favourite campaigns from 2022

January: The After Life benches

Ricky Gervais dropped the final season of After Life this year and it was tremendous. A masterpiece of intelligent and gentle comedy centred around grief, the show held many of its most poignant moments on a graveyard bench.

To coincide with the release of the last season, Netflix teamed up with CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) and dotted 25 benches around the UK to encourage people to sit and talk. Each bench was inscribed with the words ‘Hope is everything’, a quote from the show.

It was a beautiful idea that made even the coldest PR heart thaw in a cold winter.

Creativity with a purpose, what’s not to love?

Read the full story here.

Special nod: Liar.co.uk

I can’t quite believe this was in 2022, but I wanted to shout out Mark Rofe who, with the help of idiots like me, rented the domain Liar.co.uk and had it redirect to Boris Johnson’s Wikipedia page for a month. It was at the height of Partygate and, well <insert any Boris cock up here> really, and got picked up by some of the national and regional press.

More on this one here.

February: Sports Bra-vo!

From benches to boobs and February saw Adidas launch a range of new sports bras - with a massive boob-filled billboard at its headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany.

The ad featured no less than 70 pairs of naked breasts with the words ‘The Reasons We Didn’t Make Just One New Sports Bra’ in the middle. It was bold and in-your-face marketing and I loved it. Free those nips, ladies!

Full disclosure here.

March: Insomnia

After all that boob action you were probably in need of a little rest, and we got it in the form of CBD brand OTO’s partnership with iconic electronic band Faithless this month.

The Romans led the charge on a campaign that had all the elements—survey data to give relevance and topicality, a sleep scientist, and finally a 27 minute remix of Faithless’ 90s banger ‘Insomnia’ designed to lull you into the best sleep of your life (along with OTO’s products too I’m sure!).

The result was wall to wall coverage and another campaign for my ‘wish I’d thought of it’ list.

And here is the full story.

April: The Urinating Billboard

We all hate that moment when you wake up in the middle of the night and need a wee (oh yeah, I’m making these links between months as tenuous as possible!), but imagine suffering from incontinence all day, everyday.

Enter the ‘Leaks Happen’ campaign from Don’t Cry Wolf for Elvie and the world’s first urinating billboard. The billboard was said to be a response to a campaign video being banned on TikTok, but we all know getting ‘cancelled’ can sometimes work in your favour (just look at Piers Morgan et al.) so my spidey senses tell me this may have been a planned ban.

Either way it was amazing. I said it then and I’ll repeat it now—brave, bold, brilliant work from everyone involved.

More on this here.

May: The Unburnable Book

From magazines to books now, but not just any book; An Unburnable Book.

Margaret Atwood, incredible author and newly anointed firestarter, takes an actual flamethrower to a special copy of her dystopian bestseller ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ at a time when America decided it didn’t think women’s rights/bodily autonomy should be a thing any more.

The video was amazing, the message was strong, and the coverage was everyone.

A sadly very timely and powerful campaign.

The whole story here

June: The Last Photo

Another month and another nod to CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) from me. In fact, I chose The Last Photo as my PR stunt of the year for PRmoment last week.

CALM created a huge portrait gallery on London’s South Bank for people to walk around, all featuring photos of people smiling, playing, and generally enjoying life. But as you looked closer, and as was revealed on ITV’s This Morning later that same day, these were the last photos of those people before they took their own life.

The campaign’s aim was to readdress the stereotype that suicide doesn’t always look suicidal, and it resonated with so many people around the world. The kind of purposeful campaign that takes your breath away and I know it will be one of those that stays with me.

More here.

July: Above+Beyond partners with Sir Geoff Hurst to immortalise his memory of England's 1966 World Cup via an NFT

So, for the second half of the year, I take over, and I have chosen an extraordinarily imaginative campaign IMHO.

A memory digitally preserved as an NFT? Sounds mad but when you realise it's to raise money for Alzheimer's, it doesn't just make sense - it feels like a perfectly modern collaboration.

Just three members of the heroic 66' team are still alive, including Sir Geoff, with a heart-breaking number of England's finest football heroes tragically losing their lives to Alzheimer's.

The Ever Lasting Memory is a beautiful and emotional reminder of how much winning the World Cup means to its fans, but for those in the team, it's a joy that lasts a lifetime - or at least, it should do.

With only three members of the team left holding this memory, to be able to immortalise it digitally for others to share is a wonderful way to use technology to make the world a better place.

Read the full story here.

So, for the second half of the year, I take over, and I have chosen an extraordinarily imaginative campaign IMHO.

A memory digitally preserved as an NFT? Sounds mad but when you realise it's to raise money for Alzheimer's, it doesn't just make sense - it feels like a perfectly modern collaboration.

Just three members of the heroic 66' team are still alive, including Sir Geoff, with a heart-breaking number of England's finest football heroes tragically losing their lives to Alzheimer's.

The Ever Lasting Memory is a beautiful and emotional reminder of how much winning the World Cup means to its fans, but for those in the team, it's a joy that lasts a lifetime - or at least, it should do.

With only three members of the team left holding this memory, to be able to immortalise it digitally for others to share is a wonderful way to use technology to make the world a better place.

Read the full story here.

August: Saatchi & Saatchi reimagines the iconic 'Pregnant Man' advertisement in further protest of the Roe vs Wade ruling

I really loved this.

The original concept was so forward-thinking, beautifully classic and exciting seventies advertising that flipped social assumptions on their heads, making people think. 

The fact that Saatchi could do it again and it was perfectly relevant in tone and meaning, was not only opportunistic in the best sense of the word and clever creative thinking, but it also underlined the need for us to always challenge what we are told and not to accept what we think cannot be changed.  

You'll find all the details here.

September: Grey London celebrates unknown tennis legend Bob Lutz with US sneaker brand Autry

Autry takes a little-known tennis genius and celebrates him in a beautifully curated film that feels epic, yet the essence of the work is elevating a sportsman that perhaps didn't get the recognition he should have. This is, at least, what the campaign implies although Bob Lutz, and his doubles partner Stan Smith, certainly have a long and recognised list of achievements in the sport.

But either way, I really like the work.

So, shoe brand Autry took this incredibly talented player and immortalised him alongside promoting its new trainer, created in his name. 

I love the sentiment, and how understated it is but most of all I enjoyed how Grey told the story—the rhythmic beat of the soundtrack, the all-American voiceover and the mix of media. I could watch this again and again.

The whole thing is here if you want to read more about it.  

October: Mindcraft: Uncovering dyslexia symptoms through gaming

A game-based dyslexia assessment in disguise was specifically designed for young people, using Minecraft to transform the learning experience. 

French healthcare charity Puissance Dys was created in 1992 by neuropsychologist Béatrice Sauvageot, to help people with dyslexia through this innovative method. It mostly helps children and young people who have trouble at school and in their social lives.

I find the workings of the human mind fascinating and when you go behind the scenes of this kind of campaign and view and understand the research it is based on, it is not only an intelligent way to be creative, it is such a joy to find a campaign that goes to such lengths to understand its audience.

It can be a lonely world for those who live with and manage dyslexia, especially if you are a child and unable to articulate what you need and it's great to know there's something out there for kids that helps them navigate this in their own way.

November: McCann London uses deepfake technology to convey a life-saving message about knife crime

Another weighty one! And rightly so.

This one is too good to pass by without a mention. 

Joshua Ribera, aka Depzman, is artificially brought back to life in an emotional deepfake music video commissioned by The Joshua Ribera Foundation, the charity that combats knife crime in his name.

Created by McCann London in partnership with SBTV, the campaign was supported by Jamal Edwards who was integral to the creative conception before his death earlier this year. 

Depzman was a rising star on the grime scene when he was killed in 2013, and since then, knife crime has continued to rise inexorably in the UK. The video uses deepfake and audio technology to tell Depzman’s tragic story through a new song called ‘Life Cut Short’, describing his childhood, career and the night that he died.

It's a heart-breaking piece of work. It is impressive. And it uses technology for good. Anything that raises the issue of knife crime and helps to combat it is definitely worth talking about.

Click here to find out more.

December: You-Can’t-Put-Me-Down Syndrome: Challenging the protocols for new parents at diagnosis

So, December is not over yet so this is the work I'd like to share this month so far.

The start of a new life should be a positive experience.

But current healthcare protocols mean expectant parents are offered termination in the same conversation as diagnosis.

To help change this narrative, and challenge current protocols, VMLY&R Commerce has launched “You-Can’t-Put-Me-Down-Syndrome” a cultural movement in partnership with PADS charity [Positive About Down syndrome – by parents for parents and parents-to-be] to change negative connotations around Down syndrome.

It's what we all want; to be recognised, seen and heard and this campaign takes a serious point and wraps it up in beautiful art direction that not only brings a smile to the face, but makes everyone think about what is important in life.