Work of the Week: 05/06/26
EE – Yes Boys
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Chosen by Cathy Meyer-Funnell, EMEA reporter
EE’s ‘Yes Boys’ campaign had my attention straight away when the first notes of Underworld’s ‘Born Slippy’ started playing. But, aside from the exceptional music choice, the film delivers a timely and important message. Its approach does not feel preachy or condescending, but instead offers positivity and encouragement to young boys whose algorithms serve up toxic masculinity and dangerous gender stereotypes through community football.
Saatchi & Saatchi London and EE both recognise the power of sport in young people’s lives, building their confidence and giving them positive role models while enabling them to bond away from their screens. I remember a time when the England football team maybe didn’t have the greatest of reputations, but the image of Gareth Southgate giving Bukayo Saka a hug following their Euro 2020 penalty heartbreak has stayed with me, and proven that empathy and emotion are truly what makes a man.
Mission Possible – Riga Marathon
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Chosen by Scarlett Sherriff, EMEA reporter
In marathon running, mental health, physique, and even the weather, can throw hurdles that make getting to the finish line significantly harder… and sometimes impossible. School is the same – if there is no consistency in a child’s life, they can fail.
Highlighting how many Latvian young people don’t make it to the end of school, Latvian singer Finkis stopped just metres from the finish line of the Riga Marathon, and held up a sign which read, 'School is a marathon that in 1 in 5 children doesn’t finish'.
As a result of the campaign, which was created by McCann Riga, Mission Possible – which helps fast track ordinary people into teacher roles – saw a dramatic increase in recruitment. It is a fine example of how clever influencer use, and a very simple message, can create real, and most importantly, meaningful engagement.
Melanoma Focus – The Life Saving Haircut
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Chosen by Zhenya Tsenzharyk, managing editor, editorial strategy
Sometimes, a great creative idea connects what’s already there, and in the process reveals its beauty. That’s how I feel about Melanoma Focus’ ‘Life Saving Haircut’ initiative, launched to coincide with Skin Cancer Awareness Month. While we should all be checking our skin for unusual moles and changes, there are some areas that are very difficult to reach, like the back of one’s head and neck. Research shows that for men, around one in four melanoma cases are found in hard-to-spot areas like the scalp and neck. Professionals like barbers get a great look at those spots and so, with that in mind, a new and free handbook was launched to help barbers learn what to look out for.
Designed to be visually engaging and easy to understand, the book is available to download (alongside a limited number of physical copies), and will be distributed to barbershops and academies to make it part of training across the UK. It’s a simple, brilliant idea executed with noble aim – it only made sense to amplify it further with a WOTW pick.
Flipkart – GRWM GRWM
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Chosen by Sunna Coleman, Asia reporter
In the typical humorous fashion that Flipkart is known for, the brand – along with agency Kinnect – tackled end-of-season sale challenges with a fun, catchy song positioning ‘leftover’ stock as hot must-haves.
By taking the popular internet acronym 'GRWM' (Get Ready With Me) and playfully applying a Hindi twist, the brand transforms 'GRWM' into 'garam' (meaning 'hot'). With a rap-inspired track and an absurd, quirky film showcasing its fashion in unexpected scenarios, Flipkart has created another weirdly addictive ad that has you playing on repeat!
IRN-BRU – We’re Made in Scotland from Girders
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Chosen by Laura Swinton Gupta, editor-in-chief
Here’s an ad that may need a bit of cultural context. It brought tears to my eyes, but if you’re not Scottish, it probably didn’t. IRN-BRU, Scotland’s ‘other national drink’, has launched a campaign to celebrate the fact that the team is on its way to the FIFA World Cup, for the first time since 1998.
Reviving the brand’s iconic, stirring jingle, ‘Made in Scotland from Girders’, the spot blends Scottish humour with a silly but surprisingly rousing sense of nostalgia. What a concoction.
The spot also skewers some of the absurdities of this year’s tournament, from the insane ticket prices to the walkable stadium discourse… and then plonks Susan Boyle atop the iconic Forth Rail Bridge. SuBo is joined by fellow Scots, footballing hero John McGinn and Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos, as well as a chorus that would make the Tartan Army proud. From agency Lucky Generals and Academy Films directors Grandmas, it’s a real belter. You know what they say: No Scotland, no party.
BMO – BMO Guy
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Chosen by Jordan Won Neufeldt, Canada reporter
Who doesn’t love a moment when a brand meaningfully and effectively responds to pop culture? In this case, TBWA\Canada’s decision to play off the local hype of 'Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie' feels oh so clever.
In the film, the two main characters travel back to 2008, and one of them, Jay McCarrol, becomes ‘The BMO Guy’ in the alternate timeline that’s created. So, what does BMO do in response? Make cinema a reality, and temporarily replace its normal spokesperson with Jay, right in the middle of Toronto’s Sankofa Square. It’s brilliant, it’s timely, and it’s immediately eye-catching, especially given how used to seeing Lamorne Morris – the bank’s usual, beloved spokesperson – most Torontonians are. Love it!
Penny – Sheep Happens
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Chosen by Laura Swinton Gupta, editor-in-chief
Oddly, we’ve seen a bunch of sheep-themed ads on LBB in recent weeks in which a flock of bolshy bovines go wild. But they were fictional, while this story from German supermarket Penny and agency St Elmo’s is the real deal. When a feral flock got loose in a Penny store in the small Bavarian towson of Berginn, the story hit the headlines worldwide. Penny got in on the joke on social media, naturally, but it didn’t stop there. It renamed the store from PENNY Burgsinn to PENNY Schafsinn (Sheepsinn), brought the sheep into the store signage, built a unique identity, and adopted the flock, financing its feed for a year. It could have just posted a meme in response to the incident, but instead committed to the bit and was rewarded royally with a bump in revenue for the individual shop, and across Germany.
Paddy Power – Nobody Does Football Better Than US
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Chosen by Alex Reeves, managing editor, EMEA
I’ll put my seal of approval on anything with Danny Dyer’s face on it. And he has been perfectly fronting Paddy Power’s recent ads from BBH for the past few months.
In the bookmakers’ big FIFA World Cup 2026 offering, the ‘Rivals’ star and former Albert Square blokes’ bloke stands up for the nuances of English football culture in an unlikely face-off with Rob Lowe – who in turn advocates for the unique (and wrong) ways that the US does big football tournaments. It’s full of gags contrasting the ways that the fans show up, including Peter Crouch being a good sport as fans around him chant “He’s big, he’s red, his feet stick out of bed”, and a celebration of pyrotechnics lighting up where the sun doesn’t shine. It’s the sort of thing that genuinely makes me patriotic. The US customs… not so much. Good job to the other two countries that are hosting as well.
Kids Help Phone – Feelings To Text
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Chosen by Zara Góralczyk, writer, editorial strategy
Canada is seeing rising rates of self-harm among young people. For many of those kids, one of the trickiest parts of getting help can just be finding the words. Shame, fear, and the complexity of their feelings get in the way.
Kids Help Phone (KHP), along with McCann Canada, has found a way to make that a little easier, with a digital platform called ‘Feelings to Text’. A clever media strategy targets youth who are already watching high-risk, self-harm related content, and redirects them to the platform, where they can watch first-hand recollections of other people’s experiences and tap on the subtitles that resonate with them the most. Those selections are then used to generate a personalised text message, which the kids can send directly to KHP crisis responders. Effective, direct, and no more complicated than it needs to be.
Apple – Clingers
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Chosen by Addison Capper, managing editor, Americas
In a 2024 Apple ad, Ivan Zacharias visualised online data spying as a flock of bird-like CCTV cameras. Now, the SMUGGLER director is back for the brand's latest global privacy campaign, created by TBWA\Media Arts Lab.
This time, the campaign portrays the ever-present issue of online date safety as a clan of chrome-clad 'Clingers' – the film's name – that relentlessly trail non-Apple users before exploding into silver confetti as they meet their match in the stringent data protection of Apple's Safari browser.
Finally: a shout-out for the music, an unexpected choral Swedish number that adds to the film's off-kilter character.
KFC – Bucket for One
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Chosen by April Summers, lead writer, editorial strategy
Almost immediately, this campaign elicits an attack of misophonia. That physiological, emotional response to the grossly intrusive everyday sounds of chewing, breathing, and general mouth noises. (Which is quite a feat, considering this is a static OOH campaign, lacking the usual specialist sound design that comes with a traditional spot).
If anything, ‘Bucket for One’ demonstrates a distinctly potent case of the precise power of non-moving visual representations. Uncommon Stockholm’s billboards, shot by Pål Allan evoke instantaneous reactions, the modus operandi of effective advertising.
Coors Light – ColdVision
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Chosen by Tom Loudon, AUNZ reporter
Coors Light has found a radically different way to visualise ice-cold refreshment with the thermal camera. Shot entirely in infrared by Rethink, the campaign positions the summer heat as oppressive, held at bay only by the brand’s unmistakable blue.
Rather than describing that truth, the infrared shows it, transforming familiar hot summer moments into striking contrasts.
It's a beautifully straightforward execution that turns product technology into a visual metaphor, making the brand's core promise instantly readable without a single word. The thermal camera concept is both unexpected and perfectly logical -- a rare combination that transforms a functional product feature (colour-changing cans) into genuinely cinematic advertising.
Snickers – Reese's
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Chosen by Brittney Rigby, AUNZ managing director
Gathering a bunch of ‘Reese’s in a focus group to wax lyrical about SNICKERS Peanut Butter is the perfect blend of smooth and crunchy, silly and strategic.
The motivational posters made me smirk. The facilitator made me laugh. And the moment each group realises they’re all called Reese? Perfection. I’d watch an entire episode. As BBDO’s global CCO Chris Beresford-Hill told me this week, in his capacity as Cannes Lions’ Entertainment juror, what’s better than an idea that truly “follows its fancy”?
SBS – World Cup Watchers Rights Association
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Chosen by Tess Connery-Britten, AUNZ news and features editor
In a category dominated by soaring montages, emotional commentary, and slow-motion trophy lifts, the World Cup Watchers’ Rights Association (WRA) campaign from SBS, Droga5, Poem, and Hearts & Science puts Nick Mohammed behind a podium and asks Aussies to tune in to the World Cup at work.
The film encourages mysterious meetings in the calendar, long bathroom breaks, and moments of (somewhat) discreet phone viewing beneath desks.
SBS acting director of marketing and audiences, Uma Oldham, told LBB the idea was born from the need for “people to participate” and the need for “something to really drive talkability.”
The strategy is bang on, the creative idea is fun, and the ‘Ted Lasso’ star is the perfect casting choice. SBS scored with this one.
