Best Consumer Goods Integrated Ad Campaign

In 2022, we made several updates to our iconic spokescandy crew to bring these beloved, decades old, characters more in line with today’s world. What started with a simple footwear change ended up kicking off a heated, and sometimes hilarious, year long debate that placed our spokescandies and our brand in the spotlight, in a way that took us far from the purpose of the changes in the first place. As a brand with a mission of bringing people together, somehow we had found ourselves stuck in the center of a divisive conversation. We needed to change the tone of the discourse, find a way out, and bring America back together, to move on together. To do that we would need something much bigger than a spot, something that would get the whole country talking. And what better stage to pull it off, than the Super Bowl? Our idea was simple: Flip the nationwide debate around our spokescandies on its head by canceling them ourselves. With our controversial initial announcement that we were replacing our iconic spokescandies with Maya Rudolph - we leaned into the cultural moment and captured the world’s attention. Then, with everyone watching, we transformed the brand further through a series of increasingly absurd changes as the spokescandies searched for new jobs - culminating in a bizarre Super Bowl spot for Ma&Ya’s Candy Coated Clam Bites, that was quickly followed by a press conference where our spokescandies returned, for good.

Contributors:

Chief Creative Officers:	David Lubars, Luiz Sanches, Matt MacDonald, Val Carlson
Executive Creative Directors:	David Cuccinello, David Povill, Peter Kain, Alex Booker, Philip Sicklinger, Ferdi Wieling
Designers:	Humberto Fernandez, Bhanu Arbuaratna
Producers:	Kimberly Clarke, Esther Lee, Cleo Montagnana, Julia Millison, Tommy Costello
Art Director:	Maya Iwata
Copywriter:	Benner Rawley
Account Team:	Ashley Gill, Grace Hargrave-Thomas, Melissa Reisman, Leah Baumgarten, Sarah Cerbone, Ankita John
Account Team:	Alysson Scartz, Lauren Rapoport
Strategy:	Yin Chung, Dexter Blumenthal, Scott Hughes
Production Parters:	Pretty Bird, House Special, Walker, Cut & Run, Jogger, Sound Lounge

CRITICAL MASS

Website: www.criticalmass.com

Location: Canada

About the Agency:

Critical Mass is a team of 1500 inspired folks based in 12 offices around the world. We provide full-service digital capabilities for the greatest brands on Earth, but our secret sauce is our uncompromising design standards, our relentless focus on customers, and an ability to put powerful new technologies to work for our clients. We’re sought by brands who strive for connected digital ecosystems, and we help them get there by gaining deep insight into their consumer and orchestrating data, AI, design, media, and tech stacks around human stories. We’re a global agency founded in Canada, but digital is our home. If you know us, then you know we’re a special, quirky place that attracts big talent and tiny egos. (We actually give out a “so F-n nice” award—lots of them). But just because we’re friendly doesn’t mean we’re not a force to be reckoned with. We’re driven. Relentless. We live our values and hold ourselves to uncompromising design standards (which is probably why our clients stick with us for 7 years, on average). We’re also proud to be part of Omnicom, one of the largest holding companies for global advertising, marketing, digital, and communications services firms (serving more than 5,000 clients in over 100 countries). We’re Critical Mass, but our friends call us CM. Please call us CM!