AND THE WINNERS ARE…
After a gruelling 3 phase judging process, including a live session with Greg Hahn, Cindy Gallop, Jonathan Mildenhall, Sunita Gloster, Terry Savage and Faycal Ben Abdellaziz, the scores are in and the the jury has selected two winners of the inaugural Destroy This Brief. Both ideas will now go forward to be brought to life.
JOINT WINNER
MAD THINGS
BY ANNELIESE SULLIVAN & MELLE BRANSON
An episodic web series described as “Mad Men x the wit of Succession x the style and heart of The Devil Wears Prada.” Our industry both feeds on, and informs pop culture. By shifting perceptions around advertising in pop culture, by portraying characters so different from advertising’s last hoorah in mainstream media (Mad Men), our aim is to attract the people that will, ultimately, be the radical shift our industry needs
"The top two ideas came at the brief from opposite ends. ‘Mad Things’ approached from the bottom up. Inspiring diverse talent to join the industry through media. ‘White Dads’ approached it from the top down, using mentorship in a way that was provocative and unignorable. I left this experience feeling pretty hopeful about the industry’s future.”
- Greg hahn, CCO and co-founder, Mischief USA
JOINT WINNER
WHITE DAD ADOPTION DRIVE
BY REES STEEL
White Dad Adoption Drive aims to match young diverse talent with senior ad people to give them the professional, practical and financial help they would give their own kids. Talking about the ideal ‘Ad Dad’, Rees Steel said, “Like a real Dad, he’s got to open not only his heart, but his wallet, his home and his rolodex.”
“It's trite to say that all the finalists were worthy winners. The reality is that one winner will not drive the change the industry wants to see on cultural diversity. Real change needs to see the leadership that backed all 6 industry finalists make each one a reality. That'd show this wasn't just a pursuit of an award. Who's up for that?”
sunita gloster, non-executive director & advisor at Gloster Advisory
so what next?
The Only One In The Room collective will commence scoping out and facilitating the winning ideas immediately. Interested production partners and ‘White Dads’ should get in touch here.
While we’ll have our hands full bringing these ideas to life in the short-term, the truth is, the concept of 'winning' is incongruous in this context. As Sunita says, no two ideas alone can drive systemic change. We'd love to see the many people who got involved, entered an idea, got a shortlist or named a finalist, find ways to bring their own ideas to life. That’s when we could start to see real change happen. And when we come up for air, we might even be able to help.
In the meantime, we’ll begin sharing more details about the winning ideas in the coming weeks.
We’d like to again thank everyone who talked about, engaged with, shared and took part in the first ever Destroy This brief. We appreciate your commitment to a more diverse, equitable and inclusive industry.