Work of the Year: LBB EMEA’s Favourite Campaigns of 2024

In the year of elections, immigrants have been used as a political scapegoat time and time again. As the daughter of immigrants myself, it’s been rough – the UK’s anti-immigration riots this summer frighteningly recalled my family’s stories of the violence they endured in the ‘70s. But immigrants have long been crucial to this country’s growth and success, and I wish more was done to acknowledge that.

So I was very happy when Wonderhood Studios came out with a Euro 2024 campaign for the Migration Museum to challenge the anti-immigration sentiment rife during football tournaments. Crossing out the names of the players from migrant backgrounds – 15 out of the total 26 – it served as a reminder of immigrants’ contributions to this country, and what it would look like without them. I particularly love the stark OOH execution. Unmissable. Unmistakable.

I want more of this. More age-positivity. Is it any wonder that many fear growing old when society hides people away as soon as their skin loses elasticity? This year I learned that only 10% of marketing spend is directed at older consumers, but in the US, consumers over 50 contribute 51% of spending. Riddle me that. 

I find this spot so joyful. It shows people grappling with the ageing process, celebrating a birthday with friends, laughing, and partying. The film finishes with: “Ageing isn’t always easy. Yet, we couldn’t wish for anything more beautiful.” It doesn’t have to be scary; ageing is a gift, as those whose lives have been touched by HIV know all too well. It’s a sobering reminder to hold gratitude for the laugh lines, celebrating each circle around the sun.    

This OOH campaign was powerful and cleverly-executed. Not only did it draw attention to the abusive behaviour directed daily at the statues, it addressed a deeper societal issue – the pervasive silence surrounding sexual assault. The campaign raised awareness without publicly shaming the perpetrators. Instead, it aimed to foster a culture where bystanders feel empowered to intervene when witnessing such behaviour.

Visually striking and impactful, the campaign amplified the mission of the TERRE DES FEMMES charity. As Marielle Wilsdorf, creative managing director at Scholz & Friends Hamburg, explained: “Assaults are often trivialised in society, allowing perpetrators to escape accountability, while most survivors remain silent out of fear and shame. Using AI, we transformed the statues into spokespeople who, on behalf of survivors, broke the silence and spoke out for women who have experienced sexual harassment.”

Imagine convincing Unilever, one of the world’s biggest companies, to spend their advertising bucks on a short film like this, in which a woman robs a bleak English flat-roofed pub with a claw hammer and falls in love with a pleasantly scented young barman. Someone at Spanish agency LOLA MullenLowe persuaded the people at Axe/Lynx to put their marketing budget behind this oddity and I am so grateful for that person. They also managed to convince them to buy a second film, in which a woman becomes infatuated with a corpse. But ‘The Robbery’ is the one that really speaks to me.

Not only am I in awe of the people who sold it in. I’m fascinated by the discussions that happened in the process of peppering a slightly unconventional boy-meets-girl story with heaps of totally oddball decisions. Like why is she wielding a hammer and everyone’s acting like she has a gun? Why does the barman/waiter refer to what is clearly a pub (which you can really go to – it’s in Dungeness in Kent) as a ‘store’? What decade is it set in with this combination of cars and clothes? None of it adds up, which is why it’s so charming – and memorable. When I spoke to the ECD Tomas Ostiglia he told me “Every decision was uncomfortable and difficult; we as a team always did the opposite of what should be done.” And that is, essentially, why it stands out. I’d like more ads to try to stand out this much next year.

You can read Alex’s conversation with Tomas at LOLA MullenLowe about the making of these ads here.

What I was going to do was pick Bodyform's unforgettable ode to periods – an orchestra-backed mixed media fiasco portraying the life-long struggle of our uteruses, and of our lack of knowledge about them, and exemplifying the heights to which advertising can really rise. But, I thought it’s probably better to use this moment on a more unsung hero.

So, here it is – I picked a PSA. Today, in France, a woman dies from femicide every 2.5 days. Just a few hours south-east of France, in my home country of Bulgaria, 13 women died from femicide just in the first half of ‘24. And for the same period, over 500 cases of violence against women were reported. What do you think was the statistic for your country?

The French High Council for Equality took stock of what men made of all this in the past – and, unsurprisingly, some of them believed that violence against women is not only justifiable, but necessary. Then, they compared it with the raging pandemic of male toxicity online. Andrew Tate is old news now, but his views are even older – as old as time, and here to stay. Following in his footsteps, or not quite, an avalanche of male opinions online seem to confirm this.

All the HCE did was lean these two time capsules against each other to show us that, well, nothing’s really changed. And I know, this is a somber note to end things on, and I know the holidays are coming, and all the rest of it. But did you know that over the Christmas period women’s violence helplines will receive another sharp increase in calls? Anyway, let’s hope that in 2025 and beyond, content like the one shown above sees the world only in the form of PSAs, and not as podcasts, vlogs, or TikTok rants. 

Let’s set the scene: you’re walking through the park in July, birds are singing in the background, and the sun is gently warming exposed skin. There’s only thing to make this feel even better, ice cream.

Now let’s set another scene: it’s a grey London afternoon in November, light is draining from the day rapidly, and the misty rain doesn’t quite warrant an umbrella but still leaves you feeling uncomfortably damp. The last thing this scene needs? Ice cream.

In Magnum’s ‘Find Your Summer’, LOLA MullenLowe boldly shifts the cultural narrative beyond the seasonal nature of ice cream advertising to locate the desire for an icy sweet hit in the fleeting moments of winter sun. What once seemed unwelcome, perhaps even foolish, is now rendered into moments of sensual decadence and hope. The spot, directed by MJZ’s Juan Cabral, is a black and white ode to a city in winter that nevertheless radiates warmth as people, and even a fluffy cat, seek out their fragments of light. I also love the print element of the campaign and its boldly editorial visuals. Together with the spot, the idea and the execution behind the work feel new and conceptual yet elegantly simple all at once. It has a timeless, classic quality that brings much needed romance to the misery of winter months.