Products and Design

A Record 7 Black Pencils Reward Creativity for Social Good at 52nd D&AD Professional Awards

The juries at the 52nd D&AD Professional Awards last night at Battersea Evolution in London gave out the highest-ever number of Black Pencils ever awarded to a host of projects representing socially progressive, ethical and innovative advertising and design.

By Jennifer Elks | Published 10 years ago | About a 3 minute read

Two winners of the Black Pencil (which D&AD describes as “the ultimate award, for work that is truly groundbreaking”) were also the two winners of this year’s White Pencil, which highlights excellent creative ideas that effect real and positive change: SBIO London 2013 winner GravityLight, the life-changing invention of Martin Riddiford and Jim Reeves, was recognized in the Design category; and the powerful and provocative “Sweetie” campaign, praised by the UN for its role in helping children’s charity Terre Des Hommes identify over 1,000 online sexual predators, was awarded in the Advertising and Marketing Communications category.

Tim Lindsay, Chief Executive of D&AD, said: ‘When we launched the White Pencil in partnership with Unilever in 2012, it raised a few eyebrows. To introduce the first new pencil in D&AD’s fifty-plus year history was a bold move; how would the industry respond to it? Would the calibre of work be the innovative, groundbreaking variety we were looking for? Not just charity, NGO or public service campaigns, but work that truly demonstrated you can 'do well by doing good'; where the commercial and CSR agendas properly intersected.

“So to see not one, but two, Black Pencils awarded to White Pencil category entrants is a significant indicator of the direction the business is moving in. Across the board we’ve seen a real desire from our juries to recognise and reward ideas that are original, beautifully executed and that make a positive difference to people’s lives.”

The seven Black Pencils were awarded to creative work from six countries in six categories:

CSPD 2012 Annual Report — by WAX Partnership for the Calgary Society for Persons with Disabilities (Writing for Design — Annual Reports), Canada
“GravityLight” — by Therefore (Design), UK
“Improving Safety and Comfort on Train Platforms” — by Edenspiekermann for NS/ProRail (Digital Design — Technological Innovation), Netherlands
“Sound of Honda/Ayrton Senna 1989” — by Dentsu Tokyo for Honda (Digital Marketing — Sound Design & Use of Music for Digital Marketing), Japan
“Sweetie” — by LEMZ for Terre des Hommes (Advertising & Marketing Communications), Netherlands
“The Epic Split” by Forsman & Bodenfors for Volvo Trucks (Digital Marketing — Online Branded Films), Sweden
“The Most Powerful Arm” — by Finch for Save Our Sons (Digital Design — Technological Innovation), Australia

54 Yellow Pencils and two White Pencils were also awarded to campaigns from 17 different countries. 144 campaigns achieved nominations while a further 480 were awarded “In Book” status, resulting in 680 awarded entries in total across 43 different countries.

Three campaigns tied for the most awarded” “Sweetie,” “Sound of Honda/Ayrton Senna 1989” and “The Epic Split” each picked up two Yellow Pencils (awarding “work that is outstanding, rather than merely brilliant”) in addition to their respective Black Pencils and “Sweetie”’s White Pencil.

Other campaigns taking home two Yellow Pencil awards included “Real Beauty Sketches,” by Ogilvy & Mather Brazil for Dove; “Magic of Flying” by OgilvyOne Worldwide for British Airways; and in the returning Music Video category, “Gesaffelstein — Pursuit” by Les Telecreateurs.

Most Awarded

Dentsu Tokyo’s "Sound of Honda/Ayrton Senna 1989" was the most highly awarded campaign overall. It’s haul of one Black Pencil, two Yellow Pencils, one Nomination and four In Book Awards; helped Dentsu to the prize of Most Awarded Digital Agency.

Also, Ogilvy & Mather Paris was crowned Most Awarded Advertising Agency, following a string of Nominations and In Book awards for its work with IBM. Apple was recognized as the Most Awarded Design Agency, earning a Yellow Pencil for its Mac Pro; Unilever for Most Awarded Client; and Bacon rounded off the Awards by winning Most Awarded Production Company.