Ad Nut's ongoing parade of pre-awards 'purpose' campaigns

Ad Nut is not saying that the following campaigns are not 'real' campaigns (necessarily), nor that the agencies have done the following work with anything less than completely noble and altruistic intent (necessarily), nor that the work in question is not of high quality and emotionally powerful (necessarily).

Ad Nut agrees that the causes being addressed are worthy (more or less), and Ad Nut believes in the power of advertising to change people's minds, or at least to nudge them toward changing their minds. If not, Ad Nut wouldn't devote so much energy to ads in the first place—and would just be called 'Nut Nut' or perhaps 'that surprisingly literate squirrel'.

It's just that there's suddenly so much of this kind of thing arriving in Ad Nut's oak tree in recent weeks. So Ad Nut felt it was proper to round up all of the not-necessarily-award-bait into one place. 

Feeling certain that the examples below are not the last we'll see this season, Ad Nut plans to continue adding to this trove, and invites you to help out by using the comment section below or hitting @CampaignAsia on Twitter.

Here we go!

Agency: AlmapBBDO
Client: HP
Title: Magic words
Cause: Literacy

 

Agency: Leo Burnett Sri Lanka
Client: Sri Lanka Eye Donation Society
Title: White Cane Day campaign
Cause: Eye donation

 

Agency: Ogilvy & Mather Bangkok
Client: PETA
Title: Behind the leather
Cause: Animal treatment
Full Ad Nut coverage: Gut bags and meat jackets: PETA Asia stages 'shock shop'

 

Agency: Cheil Hong Kong
Client: Hello Angel
Title: Nappy Notes
Cause: Postpartum depression
Full Campaign Asia-Pacific coverage: Diaper brand claims messages on wet nappies prevent postpartum depression

 

Agency: Leo Burnett London
Client: Action for Addiction
Title: The Dry/Clean Initiative
Cause: Professional clothing for former alcoholics/addicts who are now dry/clean (get it?)
Full coverage from Campaign UK

 

Agency: Cheil
Client: Samsung
Title: The last wish
Cause: Families separated by the Korea DMZ

 

Agency: Y&R Paris
Client: International Fund for Animal Welfare
Title: If only they were this easy to reproduce
Cause: Endangered animals

 

Agency: Geometry Global Asia Pacific
Client: Voice of the Children
Title: Bring to light
Cause: Stateless children in Malaysia
Full Ad Nut coverage: Bringing Malaysia's stateless children to light

 

Agency: McCann San Juan (Puerto Rico)
Client: GFR Media
Title: Pepito
Cause: Legislation to increase the fine for texting and driving

 

Agency: Ogilvy & Mather Hong Kong
Client: Hong Kong Shark Foundation
Title: 'Congratulations'
Cause: Sharks (anti shark's fin soup)
Full Ad Nut coverage: Happy couple savagely murders sharks in wedding video

 

Agency: Leo Burnett Tailor Made (Sao Paulo)
Client: Animal Hope Project
Title: Ain't Cute
Cause: Puppy mills / dog adoption
Full Ad Nut coverage: Behind the scenes at a puppy mill, not a pretty picture

 

Agency: Grey Group Malaysia
Client: Webe (Telekom Malaysia) 
Title: Dengue umbrella
Cause: Fighting Dengue

 

Agency: DDB Latina Group
Client: David Delfin
Title: Fashion to be free
Cause: Gender equality in fashion choices

 

Agency: J. Walter Thompson Bangkok
Title: Touchable ink
Cause: Life improvement for visually-impaired people
Discussion: The agency claims to have developed a special ink that can create 3D dots, like Braille, but using regular paper and printers rather than expensive Braille machines. The agency worked with Thammasat University and Thailand Association for the Blind on the project, with equipment support and R&D Consulting from Thai Samsung Electronics. Ad Nut notes that this may be the least award-baity piece of work on this list. It would make a direct and significant benefit if it comes to fruition. And it didn't even come with a slick case-study video. 

 

Agency: Grey Group Singapore
Client: Workplace Safety and Health Council
Title: Shoelaces
Cause: Workplace safety

 

Agency: MullenLowe London
Client: OMO/Percil
Title: Free the kids
Cause: Physical activity for children
Bonus: The agency sent us a really weird PR kit including a child-sized prison jumpsuit

 

Agency: TBWA Istanbul
Client: Amnesty Internaitonal
Title: Gay turtle
Cause: Equality for LGBTI people
Full Ad Nut coverage: 'Gay' turtles push Turkey to confront homophobia

 

Agency: Grey Group
Client: Asiasoft, Impact Hub, Dragonfly
Title: Extra life
Cause: Blood donation

 

Agency: McCann Mexico
Client: L'Oreal
Title: Colour-blind men see red for 1st time
Cause: Colour-blindness
Full Ad Nut coverage: L'Oreal bravely confronts plight of colour-blind men

 

Agency: Grey Group India
Client: Radio City 91.1FM 
Title: Candy Class
Cause: English literacy
Discussion: The agency equipped candy vendors with FM receivers and megaphones and had them station themselves in low-income areas in 10 cities at the same time the radio broadcaster aired lessons on spoken English. Kids who sat through the lessons got free candy.  

 

Agency: BMF 
Client: Australian government
Title: Stop it at the start
Cause: Domestic violence
Full Ad Nut coverage: The Australian government wants children to know about domestic violence

 

Agency: Grey London
Client: WildAid
Title: Join The Herd's ivory burn
Cause: Elephant conservation

This fire won't extinguish until we've stopped elephant extinction. #JoinTheHerd WATCH LIVE NOW pic.twitter.com/rnV5Hyb1qZ

— WildAid (@WildAid) April 30, 2016

 

Agency: MullenLowe Singapore
Client: PETA
Title: Huntsman Condoms
Cause: Animal rights
Full Ad Nut coverage: Huntsman Condoms prove to be PETA's punchy publicity prank

 

Agency: J. Walter Thompson Japan 
Client: Sapporo City
Title: Soba Allergy Tattoo Checkers
Cause: The safety of foreigners who may not be aware of the risk of allergic reaction to buckwheat noodles while visiting Sapporo

Discussion:

This is definitely the most oddly specific project Ad Nut has ever seen. Here's an explanation, from JWT:

As thousands of foreign tourists are now flocking to Hokkaido for winter sports, a group of soba restaurants, located on Route 230 from the popular Niseko ski resort to downtown Sapporo, saw the need to raise awareness of soba allergies to keep tourists safe.

The group, known as the 230 Soba Street Promotion Committee, recruited J. Walter Thompson Japan, which developed the Soba Allergy Tattoo Checker—a sticker decorated with a Japanese tattoo motif—in cooperation with Dr. Mami Nomura, a dermatologist.

To check if you are allergic, apply soba-yu—the water that soba noodles have been simmered in—to the sticker and attach with the wet side to your skin. If you are allergic, your skin will turn red and the color will be visible through the clear plastic sections of the tattoo motif.

An initial 200 of the quick and easy Soba Allergy Tattoo Checkers were handed out an event last month at Koyo-tei, one by the oldest soba restaurants in Sapporo. That time, nobody was found to be allergic – and all were able to enjoy eating soba without worries. 

 

In closing, Ad Nut will leave you with this "appeal to Cannes Jury members" from last year:
[Update: Thanks to 'Ankita Kedia' for sharing this year's satirical video from Icongotv, in the comments below]

 

Need more ads? Visit Ad Nut's Campaign colleagues: Campaign UK | Campaign US | Campaign India | Campaign Turkey | Campaign Middle East