Seen and noted

BEST TV
Winner: John Lewis 'The Home Dialogues'. I like seeing fun ads that poke fun at our daily, dull lives. This collection of idents just makes fun of all the ways we interact with our home furniture and accessories. No sugar coating, just the truthful everyday life. Nice slices of life, nice casting, nice dialogues, nice placement, and as an Italian, a nice to watch lesson on how to pronounce "espresso" correctly. Believe me, "everyone's wrong".

Runner up: Hellmann's Mayonaise 'Mayotivation'. I love to think somewhere in the world a copywriter is having some fun. This is one of those times.

BEST PRINT
Winner: Burger King 'For Crazy Grillers'. There's a lot to say around grilling, and this ad proves it. Nicely fitting the brand's irony, here's another ad featuring some impossible-to-eat food, enters the brand's galaxy smoothly. Perfect shots, it feels like it ticks all the boxes.

Runner up: Oceana 'Monkeypox'. I see a clever insight here. It's really hard to keep an environmental issue on top of the news for long, in a panorama where every issue is looking for attention, and newspapers prioritize high impact news - I feel that art direction idea that sums it up so nicely could be even stronger.

BEST OUTDOOR
Winner: Heinz Ketchup 'It Has To Be Heinz'. A good brand platform is like a TV series you're always looking forward for the next episode. This is what this ad feels to me. Great local insight - but let's face it, is it really only about Australia? The shots made my day.

Runner up: Cheap Festival 'We Are The World'. A good line sticks to your head and can't get out. In this case, you can't read without singing. Here's why I like to mention this one, because I spent some time thinking referring to such a popular lyric is a clever way to make it noticeable. It's a smart device for a local festival with probably a very small budget.

BEST RADIO
Winner: Private Property 'Housemate'. Housing: the most discussed issue in big cities. There's many problems related to it, but housemates? Those are the worse. Here's a new angle to tackle it I enjoyed listening to - I wish I could hear more crazy housemates in action.

Runner up: Fundacion Ser 'A Letter That Hurts'. Domestic violence is a hard topic to handle. It's hard to make women aware of it, especially when they're the victims, and have men pay attention as well. So addressing it with a radio ad made to be listened two twice, mimicking the hidden and confusing nature of the topic, hits the spot nicely for me. Still, there's none so deaf as those who will not hear - in this case, quite literally.




This week's guest judge is Lavinia Francia, executive creative director at Ogilvy Italy.

Lavinia started her career in Bologna, Italy, then moved to Milan to join the digital team in Publicis, then switched to Ogilvy where she grew up to Executive Creative Director, leading teams with a fully integrated approach, aiming to spark a conversation and make brands culturally relevant. She likes to think of advertising as an insightful, surprising, and entertaining experience, with people at the core.

Through the years she's worked with many international clients (Nutella, Prime Video, Jeep, Fiat, S.Pellegrino, Emergency), collected many awards (Cannes Lions, Eurobest, LIA, Clio and Clio Entertainment, Effie Awards, New York Festivals, ADCI Awards) and served in many national and international juries (Cannes Lions, ADCE, New York Festivals, Clio, Gerety). She was also jury chair at the ADCI Awards and Young Lions Italy.

If not at the agency, you can find her in a bookshop or hanging around at some music festival.