Inside the Jury Room: UK Immortal Awards Jurors on the 8 British Finalists

The Immortal Awards 2025 continued with the British round of judging in London last week, which took place at Framestore on Wednesday October 15th.

The jury of top agency, production and post executives from the UK whittled down a shortlist of 39 to just eight Finalists, which received UK Finalist status and qualified for the regional European round of judging.

The eight Finalists are:

• Andrex - First School Poo (entered by FCB London and Leland)
• Cadbury - Made to Share (entered by VCCP)
• CALM x ITV - Missed Birthdays (entered by adam&eveDDB and Soundtree)
• Channel 4 - Educating Yorkshire (entered by Channel 4 and Factory Studios)
• Coinbase - Everything Is Fine (entered by Mother, Time Based Arts and WORK)
• Heinz - It Has to Be (entered by Wieden+Kennedy London)
• KFC - Believe Part 2: All Hail Gravy (entered by Mother)
• O2 - Daisy vs Scammers (entered by VCCP)

This year’s UK jury was made up of:

• Ana Balarin, chief creative officer, Wieden+Kennedy London
• Tara Ford, chief creative officer, Droga5 London
• Izaak Flanders, creative director and partner, Boo Agency
• Genevieve Grandsen, executive creative director, DAVID London
• Rory Peyton Jones, creative, Saatchi & Saatchi London
• Rupert Reynolds-McClean, managing director, Biscuit Filmworks
• Simone Sebastian, head of talent, Park Pictures
• Harjot Singh, global chief strategy officer, McCann and McCann Worldgroup
• Shelley Smoler, chief creative officer, Lucky Generals
• Helen Weil, head of advertising, Framestore
• David Wigglesworth, executive creative director, 4creative.

​

Here’s what the jury had to say about the Finalists.

Andrex - First School Poo
(Entered by FCB London and Leland)

​

Shelley Smoler, chief creative officer, Lucky Generals

It's a piece of work that has purpose at the heart of it. It's definitely raising a topic that needs to be raised and needs some awareness around. But it does it in quite an entertaining, humorous way. It's great that brands like that are realising the importance of doing good in the world but it doesn't necessarily mean being worthy. It's a nice way of doing good and entertaining people at the same time, which is the kind of work that resonates with me, personally. It’s brave, it’s bold, it’s entertaining. And I think it is going to make a difference. It is a problem that kids are scared to go. It probably makes it cool to do it and it’s OK.

Cadbury - Made to Share
(Entered by VCCP)

​

Genevieve Grandsen, executive creative director, DAVID London

I think it divided the room a bit. I think the main point of contention that people have is the different fonts. But I feel like that's not instrumental to the idea. And I think the idea itself is so rooted in the generosity of Cadbury. And what I really love about it is that all of Cadbury's work in the past has really been really heartwarming, because it's about sharing Cadbury with people that need it more or that you love. And what I love about this is the tone really shifts, and it's got a little bit of edge to it. It's like ‘you don't deserve it, actually, because you didn't contribute enough to that meeting’. It gave them a flip on the tone of generosity. I think they could have got to a place where it feels too heartwarming and cuddly.

The second thing I love about it is that real people loved it. And I think so much of what we make, real people don't see. And this was a product that my sister in law bought. Real people in my life were buying them and talking about them. That's the real power of what we do.

The medium of it is so interesting. I feel like ever since that work has been done, so many clients are like, ‘How can I have an idea that you see at point of sale?’ And it's such a hard thing to crack, and to have cracked an idea, when your brand platform is cultural, that people are sharing, but is also at the point of sale is so unique. Hats off.

CALM x ITV - Missed Birthdays
(Entered by adam&eveDDB and Soundtree)

Ana Balarin, chief creative officer, Wieden+Kennedy London

It's impossible not to be touched by the Missed Birthdays campaign for CALM. When so many suicide prevention campaigns rely on poignant images of people who have tragically lost their lives, the feeling of absence that the huge volume of balloons, each representing a young life lost to suicide, conveys is extremely powerful. A punch to the gut that is impossible to ignore. An incredible campaign that will be remembered for years to come.

Izaak Flanders, creative director and partner, Boo Agency

CALM’s Missed Birthdays campaign really stood out for me. It delivered instant emotional impact in the room with its beautifully simple yet powerful balloon installation, sparking raw and heartfelt conversation among the jury. In our search for immortal work, this piece felt like something creatives will reference and audiences will feel for years to come.

Helen Weil, head of advertising, Framestore

I was utterly moved by CALM’s Missed Birthdays campaign - brilliant in its idea and powerful in its visual language. Bold, tender, and devastatingly clear, it strikes a rare balance between deep emotion and the need for purposeful action.

Channel 4 - Educating Yorkshire
(Entered by Channel 4 and Factory Studios)

Rupert Reynolds-McClean, managing director, Biscuit Filmworks

It is an accomplished piece of filmmaking. Using technical film making in a real school, with real kids and all the real things that can go wrong. They have used all that to their advantage to make something surprising and delightful. The more you watch it the more you are rewarded.

David Wigglesworth, executive creative director, 4creative.

I'm obviously gonna say ‘Educating Yorkshire’ as something I worked on. I'm gonna do a self plug on this one. It's one of those weird ones for me, where the full package is what made it so interesting. Growing up in a shitty, rough-as-fuck school and just never being opened up to the creative industries (or being inspired to do anything other than just survive getting beaten up after school), there's something I just love around the fact that we went in and spent so much time. Our creative teams were fucking awesome on it. Dougal [Wilson, the director] was awesome. And there was so much dedication from teams, time and energy and effort put in beyond the money. We had to just really go in and try to inspire a bunch of kids in a school that's underprivileged and open them up to workshops on production, open them up to being able to see someone as amazing as Dougal at work.

Even for me, I've worked in the industry for years now, and I was inspired watching him. Just seeing him in his craft, and seeing it in the eyes of the kids when they're there doing acting workshops, he's prompting them and getting them to improvise lines off each other. It was fucking awesome.

I'm probably biassed, because I've got all that background understanding of how influential it felt going into that school in Yorkshire and seeing these children just not wanting to come to an acting workshop, and then suddenly leaving and buzzing and getting texts from the parents saying they wanted to be an actor now, or they wanted to get into the film industry.

It felt like a campaign that attacks a problem. It just looks at the fact that we have these children that don't have much inspiration through the school system, they're just taught the usual subjects, and seeing them being opened up to the creative industries felt exciting to me.

Coinbase - Everything Is Fine
(Entered by Mother, Time Based Arts and WORK)

David Wigglesworth, executive creative director, 4creative.

I love Coinbase. Do I understand what it's trying to solve? Do I understand what the product is, or how it's going to fix the shit show you that the United Kingdom's in? No. But I just absolutely fucking love the fact that it wholeheartedly just bum dropped itself straight into like UK advertising in a way that felt magical to me. Growing up in the ‘90s with TV then, I loved the fact that advertising was OK with painting an image of Britain at its worst. So you'd see shitty, disgusting houses, you'd see rotten, horrible characters, you'd see jokes that you're not allowed to say. And a lot of modern advertising feels like it's gone through 10 layers of client approval, and every cast member looks pristine and perfect, and their beards are sculpted and their hair is immaculate, the roads are clean. And so I love Coinbase for the fact that it feels like that old classic British advertising where things are a bit shit, and we're OK with that.

Heinz - It Has to Be
(Entered by Wieden+Kennedy London)

Harjot Singh, global chief strategy officer, McCann and McCann Worldgroup

It’s just inevitable. It can’t belong to anybody else. It’s fab. It is work that’s impossible to ignore. It’s so bold. It doesn’t even have its own logo on it. It’s unforgettable.

David Wigglesworth, executive creative director, 4creative.

I loved Heinz just for this absolute simplicity. When I first kind of stumbled into advertising by accident I had a bunch of mates that were doing a course in Leeds, and I was like, fuck it. I'll go. Beyond just being a kid obsessed with TV and watching film ads, I remember coming into the creative industries and being obsessed with the craft of simple print. I’d get D&AD annuals and scan through them till late hours in the morning. And just wish I could make something that's so simple, so pure, and you don't need any background understanding of it, it just screams the brand. I love Heinz because it feels like advertising in its simplest [form]. It feels Heinz. It feels like you've seen it before, but you haven't. It feels fresh and interesting.

KFC - Believe Part 2: All Hail Gravy
(Entered by Mother)

Simone Sebastian, head of talent, Park Pictures

Considering my perspective is coming from a production company side, which is obviously craft, I've been quite specific about not having it be led executionally, or from a craft perspective. I do think there is something to be said around the Coinbases or the KFCs needing to exist to show that brave work can and should be made at a scale that really showcases what our industry can do.

There was a really interesting conversation around the KFC film as an iteration of this brand platform ‘Believe in Chicken’. Was it as impactful as the first one? The thing is just looking at it as a piece of film, looking at the craft, looking at all of these motifs and images and sounds that were also pulling from things in the zeitgeist. I was thinking of like the Kanye West of it all, the costume, and obviously knowing Vedran [Rupic, the director]’s really focused approach with the music and with the references for the choreography and the head movements. I just thought, as a piece of film, it was wonderful, and it felt like a necessary part of the wider platform. So for me, it was very much something that I needed to have in the list.

O2 - Daisy vs Scammers
(Entered by VCCP)

Rory Peyton Jones, creative, Saatchi & Saatchi London

What, for me, makes it potentially immortal is that it feels like such a real moment of annoyance that it taps into. And then, rather than just talking about it, actually does something to at least try and solve it. It feels like a piece of work that is ahead of its time. It's innovative. It's doing something – a really creative solution to a problem. And ultimately is something that I would love to have in my portfolio. So that's why I voted for it. I'd stand next to this and say I think this is great.