World Creative Rankings 2023: introducing the 100 most-awarded ads of the past year
A graduation ceremony for the students lost to US gun violence, a guerilla tour of the British Museum and a breast cancer self-examination drive in Lebanon are among the 100 most-awarded ad campaigns of the past year.
Leo Burnett Chicago's campaign for gun reform took the top slot / Leo Burnett Chicago
‘The Lost Class’, a poignant graduation ceremony for 3,044 high school students who were killed by guns in a single year in the US, has been named campaign of the year in the World Creative Rankings 2023.
The moving work from Leo Burnett Chicago and gun reform non-profit Change the Ref topped the list after being showered with accolades during 2022’s advertising awards season.
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It beat ’Better with Pepsi’, a witty Alma DDB Miami USA campaign that saw strategically crumpled burger wrappers from Wendy’s, McDonald’s and Burger King form the brand’s logo, to take the top position.
And the top three was completed by Vice News/HBO, which worked with Dentsu Webchutney to create a British Museum tour with a powerful message. ’The Unfiltered History Tour’ used special Instagram filters to strip back centuries of colonial narrative and allow visitors to scan 10 disputed artifacts of the museum and see them teleported back in time to their home countries.
Other notable themes from the year included the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on small businesses, the ongoing effects of climate change and increased awareness of major social and medical issues, from cyber bullying to motor neurone disease.
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The rankings are compiled by exhaustively analyzing the performance of thousands of pieces of creative work across 19 major industry awards programs, including The Drum Awards, throughout 2022.
This time around, that meant our researchers pored over 2,438 campaigns from 1,698 clients working with 1,233 agencies composed of 522 chief creative officers, 749 executive creative directors, 2,270 creative directors, 1,543 copywriters and 1,820 art directors.
The 100 most-awarded ads of the year is the first in a series of World Creative Rankings lists that will be published over the next two weeks.
Still to come are the top worldwide and regional agencies rankings, top advertisers and top people lists. Read more on the full release schedule and methodology.