Work of the Week: 07/08/26
Pizza Hut – Kids Eat Free
Chosen by Cathy Meyer-Funnell, reporter, EMEA
Sometimes the most literal ideas really are the best. For an advert designed to appeal to exasperated parents during the summer holidays - kids eat free at all Pizza Hut restaurants - the introduction of baby goats actually makes perfect sense. This campaign from Among Equals is adorably silly but still manages to communicate the brand’s message with humour and clarity. Two parents (?) want to bring their ‘kids’ to eat for free at Pizza Hut, naturally without realising it is in fact human children that are entitled to the deal. It turns out that the agency has ensured that all kinds of kids can eat for free by donating to goat sanctuaries, as well as offering families free entry to come and meet the animals themselves. Sweet little goats running around and free pizza - what’s not to love?
KFC – PSA Posties
Chosen by Ben Conway, reporter, Americas
This work might not be glamorous at first glance, but it’s an extremely clever use of direct marketing. This reactive activation from KFC and Ogilvy Australia started with a story already taking place in culture; a postal worker was fired after using his Australia Post vehicle to drive to KFC for an hour-long break, outside of his scheduled lunch time. He was fired, and his unfair dismissal claim rejected – despite working for the company for 30 years.
KFC and Ogilvy spotted an opportunity to join the conversation, show solidarity and get other posties through its doors – using the very mechanics of the postal service to do so. How? Well, KFC sent postcards to its own restaurants across the country, giving posties an authorised reason to visit. Once they are in-store, to ‘deliver’ the mail, the postcard allows them to redeem a free meal.
Cheeky, smart, low-cost and extremely shareable. It’s a winner winner, chicken dinner.
Modelo - Modelito: Big Flavor in a Small Size
Chosen by Sunna Coleman, reporter, Asia
Imagine paying for massive OOH advertising space and then your brand and product is barely visible on it? Doesn't make sense. Except in this instance, it does.
For the launch of Modelito, Cerveza Modelo's smallest beer, the campaign by GUT Mexico saw the product printed to actual size on a huge billboard so that most of the ad was empty white space and passersby had to use binoculars to actually see it. The campaign got attention not by shouting or demanding it, but through extreme subtlety and unexpected thinking.
Simple Mills – Announcing Absolutely Nothing
Chosen by Jordan Won Neufeldt, Canada reporter
There’s something so brilliantly cheeky about creating a campaign to – as the title says – announce absolutely nothing new to consumers. It’s a privilege reserved for a limited number of brands. In a market where change and innovation are good, how many can truly benefit from proudly declaring such a stance?
Simple Mills, it seems, is one of the select few that can make this work. Partnering with Zulu Alpha Kilo, the pair found a great way to spread the word that many of its products are (or soon will be) non-UPF verified, by pointing out that despite this certification, the status quo has remained the same. Same offerings, same ingredients, same taste… just a shiny new badge of honour and recognition, for those who care about that sort of thing. Strategically, it’s just so clever, and the design work of the OOH ads is nothing to scoff at either – bright, and eye-catchingly yellow. Never has a campaign said so little and so much simultaneously!
Spotify – Fan Life
Chosen by Olivia Atkins, EMEA Craft Editor
Spotify’s ‘Fan Life’ continues the brand's focus on fan culture, flipping the spotlight from the stage to the crowd. Created in-house, the series of 15-second idents is about real fans and their rituals to show how music impacts culture, shapes community and forms identity. Using footage from concert crowds, the narrative feels authentic and magnetic, proving that music culture is driven as much by the audience as the artist. This iteration of the campaign celebrates the power of belonging, framing Spotify as a space for shared human connection.
Graza – The Hot Lap Test
Chosen by Tará McKerr, reporter, Americas
How do you promote a brand being the *checks notes* ‘Official Olive Oil of NASCAR’? This was the head-scratcher facing the folks at nice&frank and Drool’s Jasper Cable-Alexander for Graza. ‘Ready for an oil change?’ is the question posed ahead of this week’s action.
In the film, we see some Graza olive oil applied to the hood of a car from the brand's signature squeeze bottle. Then, a gravely voice asks: ‘How many hot laps heat a hood hot enough to sizzle an egg sunny side up?’ And we’re off. The car whizzes round the track with an egg slowly sizzling atop the oil, where it turns out three is the magic number. It’s fun, looks good, and brings a bit of pizazz to something that may otherwise have been just another partnership.
Arsenal – ‘Arsenal State of Mind’
Chosen by Scarlett Sherriff, reporter, EMEA
The fact I grew up just off the iconic, perfect Holloway Road makes me more than a little bit biased when it comes to Arsenal Football Club. But there is a reason why Arsenal is a fashion and society brand and not just a football one: it represents one of London’s most historic and diverse corners where the A1 road flows towards Highbury like London’s artery, and it is the club that has the biggest history of bringing Irish and Black players into the Premier League.
In Arsenal and adidas’ latest kit launch from Nexus Studios, Adwoa Aboah represents Arsenal’s connection not just with North London, but with modern, cosmopolitan London, so there couldn’t be a more iconic model for adidas and Arsenal to collaborate with.
Not to mention the delightfully charming animation which showcases just how much Arsenal is a club that prides itself on style, as well as winning. Best of all, it features the iconic bridge and billboard right next to Emirates Stadium – something which will be immediately recognisable to all north Londoners and all Arsenal fans alike. Captivating, chic, swagger-filled – what could be more Arsenal?
TBWA & LOLA – Rebrands
Read more about TBWA’s rebrand here.
Read more about LOLA’s rebrand here.
Chosen by Laura Swinton Gupta, Editor in Chief
Design is all about intention, and TBWA has been setting attention hard this week. First with an energetic and purposefully human design world for the master brand and then with a delicious rebrand that’s straight from the streets of Madrid.
Both have been spearheaded by TBWA’s design practice DXD. For TBWA, the design takes details from the agency’s heritage (the backslash, the serifed fonts resonant of iconic Apple print ads, the yellow, the pirates) and brings a warmth and spontaneity. The design has been created by a team spread across the world, bringing multiple perspectives on what it means to be part of the new TBWA. It’s modular, more of a universe or constellation of ideas than a set of brand guidelines so that local offices and teams can show up locally in a way that works for them. And for LOLA, the agency and DXD teamed up with the iconic designer David Carson and they’ve combined the elegantly off-kilter street signage of Madrid with a punk-ish collage aesthetic and scrawling illustrations that nod to Picasso.
Singapore Airlines – The New Zealanderlivery Service
Chosen by Zara Góralczyk, writer, editorial strategy
Seeing a suited man clad in protective wrapping was always going to be good, and it’s how Singapore Airlines, Motion Sickness, and ED. Studio announced ‘The New Zealanderlivery Service’, a competition sending loved ones worldwide, for free.
Five decades of international flights to and from New Zealand are the cause for celebration, and those keen to be delivered to one of the airline’s destinations are invited to list themselves online as available to order (our EMEA managing editor, Alex Reeves, tried it out in the LBB office, and we did enjoy the interface). Those who are ready to go can even tag themselves as available for express delivery.
Once someone’s been listed, they receive a unique link to send to their desired recipient and, if that person does indeed order them, they get a shot at a free trip. Roughly two weeks into the competition, over 8,500 Kiwis have applied and the first winners have been selected. A memorably fun concept with visuals to match.
Audible - Stories That Speak to You
Chosen by Abi Lightfoot, reporter, Americas
This week, leading audio storytelling brand Audible launched an ambitious global campaign. Spanning 12 markers and 11 languages, ‘Stories That Speak to You’ reminds audiences of the power of slowing down, and getting truly immersed in a good book whilst the world carries on around you.
Created by Audible’s newly formed in-house creative group in collaboration with Special US, the multi-format campaign celebrates listening via film directed by Inconoclast’s Megaforce, out of home photographed by Olivia Malone, social and audio. There’s a sense of truth that comes through in the two Megaforce-directed spots, particularly in ‘Epic Jog’ which sees a runner unknowingly complete two marathons thanks to the pull of ‘just one more chapter’ – a sentence which many book lovers would know all too well.
