Seen and noted

BEST TV
Winner: NRMA Insurance 'Duel'. This was a delight to watch. A big platform-y idea, brought to life beautifully with just the right balance of simplicity and theatricality. Offsetting the most dire of topics with playfulness and whimsy cuts through so much more than doomsday stuff. And obviously gives NRMA a never-ending role. I love the way it escalates with the score, the little moments of nature and humanity. It's a big production with elegant restraint, which is often hard. Well done all involved. I wish all ads were like this, until then, I'll be here re-watching this one.

Runner up: Southern Cross Health Insurance 'Sweet Caroline'. This is great, authentic storytelling. The kind of spot where if the performances don't feel authentic, it fails hard. But this is lovely. And a nice line at the end to thread the needle with the brand. I'll also give an honorable mention to Seize the Awkward 'We Can Talk About It'. It's an important cultural insight and, again, it's brought to life in an authentic way.

BEST PRINT
Winner: Duel winners. WIZO 'The World is Moving Forward Leaving Women Behind' and BMW 'Hey AI, Women Make Half Of The World'. There was two DALL.E 2-inspired ideas this week. Both bring the insanity of how even AI is grossly prejudiced. Craft is hard in this instance so I'm acknowledging the idea more than anything.

Runner up: CarrefourSA 'Don't Give Up'. We've all been there, bailing on a food item before getting to the checkout is a universal truth. And I love the seriousness of a such an overly inspiring line like "DON'T GIVE UP” in relation to something as dumb as a candy bar.

BEST OUTDOOR
Winner: Woombies 'The Protest Plushie'. Not really sure how this is outdoor, but nonetheless it's good work. There wasn't anything this week that wow'd me but the talent in this did a good job and it was well written.

Runner up: Sexpo: 'Pole. Man'. This got points because it was actually outdoor. And, like fart jokes, a good dick joke just works.

BEST INTERACTIVE
Winner: Puissance Dys 'Mindcraft' What a smart, genuinely interactive way to screen for dyslexia. Important, real, work done in a way that has scale and feels empowering for anyone with dyslexia. And to learn that the creator of Minecraft, Markus Persson, himself has dyslexia makes this all the more relevant.

Runner up: Domino's Pizza 'Blind Code'. Super cool application of the iconic logo on World Braille Day. Anything that champions inclusivity I'm a champion of. Lots of good work in this category this week. Also want to give honorable mentions to 'Dick Pics' and 'Curious Currencies' - both really fun. And fun is the medicine we need.

BEST RADIO
Winner: Fire and Emergency New Zealand 'Bella's Teddy'. This perked my ears up and made me feel something. Even if you heard the twist coming it was nicely done.

Runner up: Cadbury Twirl Caramel 'Control the Hype'. The idea is bigger than just this radio ad but the ad got all the hard-working stuff out there in a well-crafted and charming way. Good one!




This week's guest judge is Nick Morrissey, executive creative director and partner at MIRIMAR Creative Group, Los Angeles.

Nick Morrissey, originally from Sydney, has spent the last 15 years working at iconic creative agencies Goodby Silverstein and Wieden+Kennedy, creating award winning work for brands such Old Spice and music videos for artists including Grammy-winners, Portugal The Man. He partnered with Apple directly to launch the iPhone, Watch and Apple TV+. He also helped create the award winning Expensify This campaign for Expensify while at MIRIMAR founder John McKelvey's previous agency, John X Hannes.

He now oversees the creative department at Mirimar creating work such as this year's Super Bowl Quartertime Show for Gopuff, featuring Lil' Dicky. Mirimar was awarded Cannes Independent Agency of the year in Entertainment at this year's festival.