Creative Works: including Ikea, Ad Council and Harry's

Coinciding with Mental Health Awareness Month, the Ad Council has approached the issue of youth suicide, in a bid to help those who might be struggling during lockdown. 

The ‘Whatever Gets You Talking’ campaign is in response to a recent Ad Council study that found young people have reported feeling more negative emotions related to Covid-19, compared to older adults. 

The second leading cause of death among young people, it is estimated that for every youth suicide, there are 100-200 attempts. This issue is only getting worse as young people feel trapped during the pandemic. 

With most mental illness, while sharing issues feelings with others may feel difficult, it can be the first step to recovery. 

To help people open up, ‘Whatever Gets You Talking’ shows the various ways young people can start and continue conversations about mental health with their friends - whether that be GIF, emoji, call or text.

Directed by Kristian Mercado Figueroa, the film sees the rapper Akinyemi guide viewers through different ways they can reach out and start conversations with their friends. In the ad, conversation starters are brought to life, with digital stars Addison Rae, Avery Cyrus, Bryce Xavier, James Henry, The McFarlands, Meghan Trainor, Molly Burke, mxmtoon and brothers Zach Valentine and Pat Ramirez making cameo appearances.

Imitating the distinctive simplicity of its flat pack instructions, Ikea is providing parents with well-needed kids entertainment in the form of instructional sheets on how to build forts. 

While lockdown is hard enough on its own, lockdown with children is a different kettle of fish. To help parents keep their kids amused, Instinct has created a series of guides for Ikea Russia, while shrewdly promoting the retailers products. 

The 'easy-to-follow' instructions detail how parents can create forts, dens and castles simply using everyday items, like Ikea's chairs, blankets, pillows and fairy lights along with an once of imagination. 

MasterClass, the platform that makes it possible for anyone to learn from the best, has just launched its first-ever brand campaign.

The campaign, created by Anomaly LA, is anchored by a 60-second spot called 'Today’s The Day,' narrated by Spike Lee. The hero spot will run on select network, cable, streaming services and OOT, as well as MasterClass social channels, along with print ads and OOH. Full credits are included below. 

MasterClass believes that this moment in time will lead to a renaissance of creativity and entrepreneurship. The 'Today’s the Day' campaign captures just that. With a mission to inspire, enable and equip everyone to take a step towards exploring something new on their own terms - however big or small - the campaign celebrates doing that thing you’ve always wanted to do.  

Playboy has been a leader and convener in sexual wellness for over sixty-five years. The iconic brand is using its platform and authority in the space to ask if the ways we protect ourselves from Covid-19, a socially transmitted infection, are really all that different from the ways we protect ourselves from sexually transmitted ones. P

layboy brings that question front and center with a humorous PSA called 'Practice Safe Six', that was developed in conjunction with creative agency Preacher. 

Men’s care brand Harry’s want to get the nation shaving to help those who are feeling the strain of isolation so have created #8foramate - a fundraiser for their charity partner Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), to encourage people to shave or re-purpose their lockdown beard and nominate a mate to do the same!

During this difficult time, it’s important to check in on friends and make sure they are ‘ok’, so they aim to do just that. 

Here’s how you can get involved:

1. Shave! This part’s easy—just pick your style. Goatee, handlebar… the world’s your oyster. Don't need to shave? This is a campaign for everybody - why not paint on a comedy beard, then rub it off? Or dig out that Santa beard? The more creative, the better!

2. Post a picture of your brand-new look and tag @harrys and @calmzone #8foramate in the caption. Then nominate five friends to do the same.

3. Head to www.harrys.com/go/8foramate and donate, 100% of money raised during this campaign will go directly to CALM to help them save lives.

The Big Issue has launched a creative campaign in partnership with social impact creative consultancy, Fox & Hare,  to call on the public to take on a challenge to ‘sell’ the award-winning magazine on behalf of the street sellers in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis.

The Big Issue, which offers homeless and vulnerably housed people across the UK a means by which to earn a legitimate income, recently had to take the decision to safeguard its network of sellers by asking that they stop selling on streets for the foreseeable future.

With Big Issue sellers currently unable to sell the magazine on the streets, the organisation with the support of Fox & Hare, is asking existing subscribers and supporters of the magazine, as well as people who are working from home or have been furloughed, to volunteer their time and join an army of  ‘Associate Big Issue Sellers’.

To take on the challenge, people have to download the magazine’s app, or take out a print subscription and sell 3 subscriptions to 3 friends and family within 7 days.

The Sell A Sub campaign has been launched alongside an animated video on LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube, created by social impact creative consultancy  Fox & Hare, without charge, which shows how a local sheriff in the Wild West would recruit ordinary citizens to deputise for him during emergency situations - and calls on people to do the same for Big Issue sellers during the current crisis.

ITV has brought its roster of stars out in full-force to reinforce the importance of staying connected and reaching out to people who might be struggling during lockdown. 

The latest leg of ITV's 'Britain Get Talking' campaign, the work responds to YouGov research that claims 55% of the UK public are more worried than usual about our families mental health. 

The spot sees the stars gather online, appearing at first to be catching up with each other during the lockdown over video call. With help from his daughter, Gordon Ramsey gets online, as David Walliams apologises for being late because of "dad stuff" and Loraine Kelly comments on it being "a funny old time." 

After the stars make light conversation, Jim Stewart asks "and who hasn't felt over the last few weeks" wherby Walliams juts in, "a bit lost?" followed by "and out of sorts?" asked by Julie Etchingham, smoothly directing the discussion to the viewer at home. 

Authentically, with the natural interruptions and usual technical glitches of real-life video calls, the celebrities share a poignant messaging about checking in with loved ones. Over the course of the ad, 20 famous faces join in the call, including Will.i.am, Anna Friel, Laura Whitmore, Tinie Tempah, Maggie Alphonsi, Phillip Schofield, Holly Willoughby, Harry Redknapp, Davina McCall, John Barnes, Julie Etchingham, Iain Stirling, Emma Willis, Jason Watkins, Sheila Hancock, Charlene White and Ant and Dec. 

To support the start of Brassic season 2, Livity has made an addictive social game using Instagram face filters. Players can take on the role of Vinnie, the lead character in the show, as he tries to escape a criminal heavy that chases them across town. The game can be played here on Instagram.

 

To promote the game, most of the cast have also played it on their Instagram Stories, including michelle keegan, who has 4.5 million followers.

 

The idea was concepted and built entirely under lockdown.

 

As France begins to ease its lockdown restrictions, Intermarché wanted to send a message of hope and promise, celebrating the emotion of finally being able to (safely) reunite with friends and family.

Filmed during lockdown, the 60-second ad doesn't use people or narration. Instead, the film, which was released the day before the end of confinement, featuring shots of those doorways we've all been looking at longingly for weeks, aptly conveying the loneliness of yesterday and the promise of the future.

Directed by Katia Lewkowicz, through FaceTime, the moving film perfectly expresses our feelings through the song “Je suis seule mais desire être avec vous”/”I’m alone but I want to be with you” by Nina Simone.

NazariyaQFRG, a queer resource group working on issues of gender and sexuality, has launched a campaign in support of the LGBT*QIA community, calling on them to take pride in themselves.

Despite the decriminalization of section 377 in India in 2018, the LGBTQIA community is still often subjected to prejudice and discrimination by the larger society. This stigma holds them back from openly coming out.

Keeping this in mind, NazariyaQFRG launched a campaign ‘Wear Your Pride’ to support the community, and help them take pride in who they are. It is also an invitation to families, workspaces, and the society at large to be more inclusive of LGBT*QIA+ persons. 

Reebok has launched its 2020 Pride collection, All Types of Love, and an accompanying film, ;Proud Notes' created by Deutsch NY.

The ad centers around letters of support written by loved ones, honors a group of individual activists and influencers in the LGTBQ+ community who are fighting for equality every day.

Lloyds Bank has launched a campaign that continues its partnership with Mental Health UK. 

To show Lloyds is by their side, this new campaign builds on the mental health awareness campaign that won Channel 4’s £1m ‘Diversity in Advertising” competition in 2018, this new work, also by ad agency adam&eveDDB, features customers playing a variation on the ‘Who am I?’ sticky-note guessing game, as a way to explore the concerns that customers face during the crisis.

Does it make me feel like I could lose everything?’ asks a small business owner with a sticker saying ‘stress. ‘Does this affect our plans for the future?’ wonders a pregnant woman whose sticker says ‘isolation.’ Does this make me feel like it’s all my fault? ponders a woman with ‘guilt’ stuck to her forehead.