In 2021, the US faced an unprecedented shortage in wings, meaning restaurants like Wingstop had a tough challenge in front of them: what do you do when you can't sell wings? People were experiencing low quality or no wings at all. Given America's preference for chicken breast, thighs were the one part of the supply not yet exhausted. Wingstop pivoted and launched Thighstop, a hack of the Wingstop brand. From pack design to communications across broadcast, video, influencers and retail, thighs became the order of the day.

Thighstop

Cadbury Celebrations takes hyper-personalised brand communication a step further  by allowing small local businesses to make India's biggest celebrity – Shah Rukh Khan – their own brand ambassador. The AI generative technology creates a digital avatar of Shah Rukh Khan by recreating his face and voice, one for each of the four types of shop in the Cadbury distribution network: fashion, footwear, general and electronics. The local store owners were also given a platform to create and share their own versions of Shah Rukh Khan-My-Ad where he promotes their individual stores.

Shah Rukh Khan-My-Ad

Over the past decade, a heated rivalry has emerged in rap culture between more traditional lyrical rap and newer 'mumble rap'. Some people say mumble rap sounds like rappers have a mouth full of peanut butter, so Jif, the biggest peanut butter brand in the US, set out to unite both generations of rap.

Lil Jif Project

32% of women around the world feel uncomfortable swimming in public. In the Middle East, it's 88%. So adidas created the world's first swimmable billboard in Dubai, encouraging every woman in the city to dive in and become ambassadors for its new inclusive swimwear collection, regardless of their shape, ethnicity or ability. It sparked a global conversation across 60 countries about making swimming more inclusive as a sport for women.

Adidas Liquid Billboard

Creativity had been jeopardised in the wake of Covid-19. Galleries closed as they were not deemed 'essential', negatively impacting creative communities, but essential shops were allowed to open. So Bombay Sapphire turned the Design Museum into a supermarket, so it could reopen despite pandemic restrictions. Ten emerging artists were enlisted to turn essential items into artworks, including rice, loo roll, fruit and veg, and Bombay Sapphire gin – all at supermarket prices, making art accessible to all.

Curation by Ashleigh Burton

Ashleigh Burton

PR judge D&AD

My favorite winning projects