I hate the judges who rain on everyone's parade but there were a couple of lean categories. Interactive and activations are my interest anyway - anything with real world impact that would interest people outside of our ad-land bubble and the interactive category delivered best this week.
BEST INTERACTIVEIn a lean week I enjoyed this category.
Winner: Medibank '
The Non-Starting Eleven'. Smart, fun, relevant, clever. Does the gender thing without being patronising or "femvertising" which is always a relief. Loved.
Runner-up: '
Soap Me Up'. Very cool. I'd love to know more - is this an innovation unique to this project, to the brand or Ecuador. With the right story and a revamped case study to fill in the gaps this could do well. The world needs real impact solutions like this.
Special mention: Bodega Dante Robino '
Amelie Le Francais de La Lande'. Though it owes an origin story to the J. Walter Thompson Cannes Lions winner of old 'The Last Rembrandt' this was well done. Well done.
BEST OUTDOOR 
Winner: Libreria Espanola '
Mandala boob'. The message around cancer checks will always need a fresh spin so congrats to the guys here to find one. Nicely executed. An extra moment's attention for an important message secured.
Runner-up: Jetstar '
The Parsnip Place'. I think the claim to be the world's most boring pop-up is a big one. But it is the most entertaining collision of the word 'parsnip' and the Kiwi accent. So congrats.
BEST TV
Eesh. Some good efforts and one trauma thespian excursion that I found a bit tone deaf.
Winner: MAS '
The Overthinker'. It was 1964 that Irish playwright Brian Friel brought 'Private Gar' and 'Public Gar' to the stage. The device of personifying our anxious internal dialogue is excellently realised here. Super writing, direction, acting and production. Worthy of Best.
Runner-up: Old Spice '
Big Man Ting'. Am I old? I am old. The genius of the original Old Spice 'The Man Your Man Could Smell Like' adverts from Susan Hoffman were that we were all in on the joke as it gently sent-up and outrageously satirised the conventions of the category. Is a grime artist singing 'Look Nice Smell Nice Big Man Ting' equally intentionally ridiculous and will the youth know? Or is it trying to hedge its bets. I am too old to tell. But I laughed and I loved him on a boat.
BEST PRINT
Print. I'm struggling here. I'm not generally a fan of 'things that look like things' print especially if I have to squint to see the 'thing'.
Winner: At a push I'll pick the
Jeep ad. I want to believe in it. I guess SUVs that have always made their name with blokey advertising have as much a place to talk about breast cancer as any other brand... do they?
This week's guest judge is Roisin Keown, founder and executive creative director of The Brill Building, Ireland.
Roisin Keown is one of Ireland's most awarded creatives.
In 2019 she founded her own creative-led agency The Brill Building, where she serves as CEO and executive creative director. It has established itself as Ireland's most effective and awarded new creative agency, winning major awards and clients within the first few years of launch including Double Silver at EURO Effies, Gold at ICADS, Effies, AIMS, PRII and Grand Prix at APMC and Europe's IMC for the The Shop That Nearly Wasn't, the first shop 100% stocked and staffed by cancer survivors.
A key tenet of The Brill Building is making it the place to do the best work of your career, whether as a team member, collaborator or client.
She also serves as creative producer of The Paddy Irishman Project, the award-winning visual arts project about Irish identity which launched to worldwide notice in New York in 2023.
In 2023, The Brill Building won Ireland's first Gerety award for The First Poster To Catch Lung Cancer for The Marie Keating Foundation.
