We are extremely proud to announce that our very own Copywriter, Pajan Kazemi and Art Director, Katie Nugent-Bowman won Silver in this year’s National Advertising Challenge.
The National Advertising Challenge (NAC) is a creative brief-based competition open to hundreds of advertising agencies across the country. The Canada-wide contest celebrates originality as an outlet for top creatives to unleash their imagination by competing for the most compelling ideas, in response to a brief from a top brand.
Pajan and Katie entered the NAC Cares category to submit an idea for #SickNotWeak: a not-for-profit corporation that addresses the stigma around mental health. The brief tasked entrants to communicate to those suffering from mental illness that they are not weak, and to inspire them to build confidence and help eliminate the negative stigma around mental health. Additionally, it called for educating others about how mental illness is a sickness, not a weakness, and should be treated as such.
Our creative duo realized the magnitude of how mental health affects everyone in one way or another, and how people often suffer behind closed doors. Given that insight, they decided to leverage a familiar voice that lives in many homes across the nation – Amazon’s Alexa.
See their submission below:
Idea: To prove that mental illness is not a weakness, but a sickness that often hides in plain sight, we’ll show it affects the very last person we’d expect – Alexa. In partnership with Amazon, we’ll use Alexa as a catalyst to end the stigma surrounding mental health. When asked a question she won’t give her typical responses, but rather act withdrawn and distracted. When asked, “What’s Wrong?” Alexa will reveal that like many sufferers, she too has been hiding her mental illness. Alexa’s sickness demonstrates how commonplace mental illness can be, empowering sufferers and their families with the knowledge that they are not alone in their struggles and giving them the confidence to continue the conversation on social using #SickNotWeak.
Media Considerations: Through Alexa, we’ll utilize free media that already exists in thousands of households across the country and reach both sufferers and those who care about them in one of the most common places mental illness is hidden – the home.
Chloe Lackman
Marketing Manager
tag
905 940 1948 x 238
chloe@tagagency.ca