Welcome to A Week in Creative, a one-stop-shop for all your creative news this week. This is an extract from The Drum Creative Briefing. You can subscribe to it here if you’d like it in your inbox once a week.
Before we get started, though, I want to formally introduce you to The Drum’s new Creative Works round-up, where each week we will update our hall of fame, celebrating the 10 best ads from our Creative Works section. Please email me your nominations for next week, and don’t forget to vote.
So, what do the terms ’geriatric mom’, ’incompetent cervix’ and ’habitual aborter’ all have in common? They’re all outdated, subtly sexist vocabulary that women experience throughout fertility and motherhood. Peanut – an app connecting women across fertility and motherhood – is drawing attention to these outdated terminologies with the #RenamingRevolution.
The glossary can be found on Peanut’s site and is available as a reference for anyone to use when talking to women about their experiences, with the aim of creating a stigma-free future that empowers women.
Next up, did you know that some 115 million children do not have basic literacy skills? With the pandemic disrupting education, the problem of illiteracy has only exacerbated, with millions of children losing access due to remote studying opportunities. On behalf of World Vision, TBWA\Helsinki placed billboards across Finland that highlighted the realities faced by those who never learn to read by presenting the OOH copy in illegible gibberish.
Patagonia, meanwhile, is on a mission to encourage people to imagine a new energy system that is local, community-owned, renewable and rooted in bringing social and economic benefits to local communities. ’We the Power’ is the outdoor brand’s biggest-ever European campaign and is accompanied by a documentary that launches later today (April 15).
Never one to disappoint, this week saw the return of Satan in a mockumentary-style ad for Mint Mobile by Ryan Reynolds’s production company, Maximum Effort. Taking note from the school of Pixar, Maximum Effort shows signs of slowly creating a connected universe by dropping the popular prince of darkness between Match.com and Mint Mobile.
Also this week, M&S Food has embarked on its biggest ever ’quality campaign’ in collab with ITV Creative – the first big bit of creative to come out of M&S Food since it relegated longtime creative agency Grey London to project work and handed the creation and production of its advertising to its in-house creative team.
And the second pandemic Ramadan has begun. As Muslims navigate restrictions, brands have been releasing their Ramadan ads. Instead of falling into the trap of celebrating Ramadan in a conventional way, Grab’s celebrations this year are out of this world, with a spot inspired by sci-fi classics Star Trek and Star Wars and that sees humans take on aliens. Equally surreal is Gojek’s Ramadan spot, featuring characters that cry cartoon-like tears.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, so if this dose of creativity leaves you thirsty for more, please drop in at The Drum’s Creative Works – the home of creative from all around the globe. You can also subscribe to The Drum’s creative newsletter or browse our round-up here.
