Should Russian Meddling In The U.S. Election Win A Major Advertising Award?
For those not familiar with the advertising industry, it has a lot of awards. The Cannes Lions, The One Show, The ANDYs, The Clios, The Pandas, The Effies, The Addys–only one of those is made up, and that’s only a fraction of the real list. Point is, advertisers love a good pat on the back and a shiny bauble. Now, an anonymous group of ad creatives is aiming to use the industry’s penchant for hardware to raise awareness for media literacy and the manipulation of advertising.
Project Meddle calls Russian efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. election “the most impactful advertising campaign of the century” and has created a case study video to make its point. The video uses ad industry-speak like influencers and media impressions to show Russian meddling in the context of other industry work. The case made to industry award judges is twofold:
1: You will be recognizing what is inarguably (and unfortunately) the most impactful advertising campaign of the century.
2: You will help spark an important conversation in and around the awards ceremony, which (we hope) will lead to new preventative initiatives among the influential tech, media, and creative leaders in attendance.
We might not like the campaign, but it’s tough to argue it wasn’t the most high-profile and effective media blast of 2016. Or, as the case study says, “In the end, we didn’t just impact an election, we impacted an entire nation’s faith in democracy.”
Fast Company , Read Full Story
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