The best of British advertising — or from anywhere, based on the compelling commercials featured in the 73-minute reel — began its annual Walker Art Center screening on Friday. While the British Arrows Awards aren't as prominent as the Tonys, Emmys or Oscars, this year's winners show once again that advertising can be just as creative as plays, shows and films.
And, as evidenced by some of the themes, just as insightful.
U.K. society (and as a result, politics) and even national identity are in flux, in part because of Brexit, which is just as divisive now as it was when the referendum on European Union membership took place last year.
"Leave" voters did so for many reasons. One was a pushback against the complications coming from E.U. bureaucracy. So simplicity was a recurrent motivation and motif behind many commercials. Like one from McDonalds' McCafe outlet, which to the tune of the Brit hit "Madness" shows quick cut scenes of overpriced and over-the-top European-style coffeehouses. "I just want coffee," a flustered customer plaintively pleas. "McCafe. Great-tasting coffee. Simple," goes the tagline, which might connect with consumers on this side of the pond, too.
Ikea reprises the theme in three spots that show how everyday design fixes can make life simpler, and better. "The Wonderful Everyday," the tagline reads.
But of course everyday is not so simple, nor so wonderful. Cancer can intervene, as shown in two moving spots. One, for Cancer Research UK, shows a doctor singing "head, shoulders, knees and toes" with a bedridden kid. Another, for insurer BUPA, tracks a middle-aged female cancer survivor edging back onto a dance floor.
Some afflictions are more social than medical, but require intervention nonetheless. That's the message from the Charitable Trust in a thought-provoking ad about texting and driving that equates the dangers of distracted driving to those of drunken driving. Indeed, it seems to be a good start to an imperative campaign, let alone a social movement.
Another piercing public-service spot comes from the Prince's Trust. It shows the parallel lives of a woman texting to arrange for an 8 p.m. visitor. A split screen displays the duality of the woman preparing in a bright apartment with anticipation or in a bleak flat with dread. The arrivals reveal the mystery. The need for rescuing troubled youth, however, is no mystery. "Without your support, a generation of young lives would be very different," reads the ending caption, capturing society's shared responsibility.
