Ogilvy and Rethink were the top Canadian shops on the prestigious One Show winners list released Thursday.
Ogilvy’s pandemic-inspired “Courage is Beautiful” campaign for Dove won four Golds, four Silver and three Bronze pencils, while Rethink and Kraft Heinz’s steady stream of saucy work from the past year was also rewarded in a big way, with a Gold, five Silvers and two Bronze.
Fittingly for a year dominated by the pandemic, “Courage is Beautiful” has emerged as the year’s top campaign. The powerful portrait series of exhausted healthcare workers from the earliest days of the crisis is also nominated for a Titanium Lion in Cannes, and its four Golds at the One Show (two in Print, one each in Branded Entertainment and Direct Marketing) make it a good bet to land multiple Lions later this month. While officially a UK entry, the campaign was a joint effort between Ogilvy’s Toronto and London offices.
Rethink and Kraft Heinz, meanwhile, won Pencils for three different creative campaigns. “Draw Ketchup” was the biggest winner, with a Gold in Social Media, Silver in Design, another Silver in Branded Entertainment and a Bronze in Out of Home.
“Heinz Ketchup Puzzle” won Silver in Print and another Silver in Experiential and Immersive, plus a Bronze in Branded Entertainment, while “Heinz on Film” won Silver in Social Media.
Two other Canadian campaigns which won big at earlier awards shows—FCB’s “Project Understood” for the Canadian Down Syndrome Society, and FCB/Six’s “Go Back to Africa” for Black & Abroad—also won Gold in the Creative Effectiveness categories.
“Project Understood,” which also won a Silver in Creative Effectiveness, won a stunning 11 golds at last year’s One Show, and is a contender for a Titanium Lion later this month.
The big One Show winner on Thursday was AMV BBDO London, which was named Agency of the Year after winning Best of Show and six Best of Discipline awards. Its 12 Gold Pencils were for “#wombpainstories” for client Essity Bodyform/Libresse (see it below).
One Show also gave out its first ever Fusion Pencil in recognition of “great work that best incorporates diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) principles and underrepresented groups in both the creative content of the work and the team that made it.”
The winners were FCB Inferno with Partizan, both in London, with “This Girl Can” for Sport England, and The Bloc New York with “The Call” for EmpowHer NY.
In total, Canada won three Gold, nine Silver and 11 Bronze Pencils, but that rises to seven Gold, 13 Silver and 14 Bronze with the Ogilvy Toronto wins.
A total of 17,719 pieces from 65 countries were entered, with 173 Gold, 161 Silver, 224 Bronze Pencils awarded.
Aside from its winning work with Kraft Heinz, Rethink won two Bronze Pencils for Molson Canadian’s “Make it Canadian,” in Public Relations and Integrated, as well as a Bronze for IKEA’s “Baby Proof Spotify Ads.”
Other Canadian winners were:
•TBWA\Juniper Park with two Silvers and one Bronze for the Canadian Women’s Foundation’s “Signal for Help.”
•Lg2, with Touché and BLVD, with a Silver for Societe de l’assurance automobile du Quebec’s
“Living Radars.”
•FCB/Six won two Bronze for “Publicly Traded” for Lifestyle Healthcare.
•Taxi and Type 1 won Bronze for Volkswagen’s “The Carbon-Neutral Net.”
•Leo Burnett won Bronze for Milk-bone’s “You Choose What They Chew.”
•Jam3 won Bronze for “Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond” for Oculus / Respawn.
•McCann Toronto, with McCann Poland, won Bronze for “Safe Waze 2 Shop,” for Mastercard.