Osocio’s Campaign of the Year 2010

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Osocio is the most dedicated website to social advertising and non-profit campaigns, “is the central online hub for advertisers, ad agencies, grassroots, activists, social entrepreneurs, and good Samaritans from around the globe”. I met them four years ago as the Houtlust Blog and it’s been an important source of inspiration for my adgresiv articles even if I ignored this category lately and focused on other projects mostly related to photography.

This year it was a great honor to jury the Osocio’s Campaign of 2010 Nominees and the one who got the biggest score was the video Embrace Life – Always wear your seatbelt who became an absolute hit in the Social Advertising world last year.

“The work from director Daniel Cox is part of a wider campaign from the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership (SSRP). But the video from the campaign was the big surprise for us. We wrote about it for the first time a year ago, in January. Now it is viewed 13,293,485 times on YouTube.

Jury member Tim Nudd:
The whole safe-driving category is full of blood and guts and scare tactics. “Embrace Life” beautifully goes in the other direction, artfully and poignantly making the point that you should wear a seatbelt because you want to live—not because you don’t want to die. It’s one of the most touching and compelling PSAs I’ve ever seen, and an overwhelming viral success. What more could you want from a social campaign?

Jury member Tom Megginson:
Embrace Life had no shock, no clever reveal, and the special effects were just a slow motion camera. But by drawing the viewer into an authentic emotional connection between a man and his family, it communicated one simple message: you should wear your seatbelt because you want to live for them, and because they want you to live. I’m a father, and it literally brought tears to my eyes the first time I watched it. That doesn’t happen often.

The campaign has scooped a wide range of awards, including YouTube Ad of the Year, a Prince Michael International Road Safety Award, Gold World Medal, New York International Advertising Awards; a Bronze Lion at the Cannes International Advertising Awards; Highly Commended from the Chartered Institute of Highways and Transportation and the advert was also featured in the Advertising Producers Award (APA) 2010 collection.

We did an interview last year with Neil Hopkins, the Communications Manager from SSRP. Read it here.“