A Few Degrees More Climate Change Awareness | Clapboard Ad Archive

Prêt à Voter (case study) - Solar Impulse | Clapboard Ad Archive

Solar Impulse’s Prêt à Voter campaign, executed by Publicis Conseil in Year: 2023, stands as a definitive example of how precise creative strategy and rigorous communications planning can meaningfully accelerate legislative action in the public service arena. Tasked with bridging the wide gap between the chronic noise of environmental problem-awareness and the paralysis in policy execution, Solar Impulse, under Bertrand Piccard’s leadership, distilled 1,400 pragmatic, economically viable solutions into 50 concrete, pre-drafted legislative proposals, directly mailed to every one of France’s 577 newly elected deputies at a rare moment of parliamentary renewal. Rather than fueling yet another abstract call to environmental action, this project took the bold marketing stance of removing the practical barrier to change, providing MPs across political lines with ready-to-vote laws at the precise juncture when they could make immediate use of them. Carefully orchestrated OOH and DOOH placements near the National Assembly and across high-traffic Parisian sites, coupled with targeted social media outreach and widespread media coverage driven by Piccard himself, ensured the initiative saturated the lawmaking and broader social consciousness simultaneously. The rallying campaign line — as the climate changes, laws should too — acted both as a call to arms and as reassurance, distilling Solar Impulse’s eco-realism thesis into a clear, actionable offer to politicians wary of public, economic, or bureaucratic resistance. What Clapboard’s taxonomy would classify as FORMAT#1—Demonstration, the creative concept here serves to prove by direct evidence: the pre-drafted bills themselves are both message and mechanism, showing precisely how governments can convert curated environmental solutions into legislative outcomes. This disciplined, B2B-focused approach eschews emotive appeals in favor of irrefutable utility, yielding unambiguous results — three proposals folded word-for-word into government energy law, nine debated in the Senate, one before Swiss Parliament, and another at the European Union, marking a categorical shift from advocacy to action. Beyond the accolades at Clio, Cannes Lions, One Show, and Eurobest, the campaign is a case study in how precision targeting, legislative literacy, and creative ambition can short-circuit institutional inertia. Clapboard rates this 86/100. As a signal to the global creative and public affairs sectors, Prêt à Voter demonstrates that campaigns designed as tools for immediate policy implementation — rather than just rallying cries — can set new benchmarks for impact and creative accountability.

Screen2Save - Initiative Vermisste Kinder, Free2move | Clapboard Ad Archive — archive collection thumbnail

Screen2Save - Initiative Vermisste Kinder, Free2move | Clapboard Ad Archive

Screen2Save, launched in Germany in 2025 by Initiative Vermisste Kinder and Free2move in partnership with Mediaplus, redefines public service communications with the country’s first real-time, geo-targeted alert system for missing children, addressing a critical vulnerability in the national child safety infrastructure. Faced with the legal roadblocks that have long prevented a German Amber Alert, the campaign pivots from legacy broadcast techniques to an agile, data-driven model: police-verified alerts are distributed within hours across a high-impact ecosystem of in-car media on Free2move vehicles, supermarket displays via major grocery chains like EDEKA and REWE, and automated social posts reaching deep into Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. The campaign leverages geo-intelligence to ensure that every alert lands exactly where the child was last reported, dynamically expanding its local radius to drive mass awareness without compromising privacy. What Clapboard’s taxonomy would classify as FORMAT#1—Demonstration, the work is marked by its direct, systematic explanation of how the platform is activated: from the accessible online submission form designed for Germany’s 29.7 million parents, through rigorous police verification, to the cascade of real-time alerts mobilizing the public at the precise moment of crisis. The inclusion of influencers and the coordinated support of Serviceplan Culture, Mediaplus, and TACSY push the message far beyond traditional family audiences, consciously framing child safety as a societal obligation and not a niche parental concern. The results signal how integrated thinking is changing the face of public interest marketing: Screen2Save recorded 137 million impressions across digital out-of-home, social, TV, print, and connected TV in its opening weeks, netted 1.5 million unique website visits within a fortnight, and generated coverage in every tier of the German and regional media, delivering 21.5 million press contacts. Most notably, the system’s efficacy was proven days into launch, when the first reported child, Kimberly, was found safe within four hours of her profile going live. The campaign’s design philosophy is as pragmatic as it is progressive, fusing technological accessibility, media partnerships, and rapid community activation to drive outcomes once thought technologically or legally impossible. Clapboard rates this 80/100. Screen2Save signals a pivotal shift in the public service arena, demonstrating how a creative coalition can translate regulatory constraints into systems innovation when the stakes are measured in children's lives.

The exhibition that shouldn't exist, Young girl, victim o... - ControlArms.org | Clapboard Ad Archive — archive collection thumbnail

The exhibition that shouldn't exist, Young girl, victim o... - ControlArms.org | Clapboard Ad Archive

Leo Burnett Lisbon’s The exhibition that shouldn’t exist for ControlArms.org harnessed the charged potential of visual art as a vehicle for activism, launching in Year: 2013 at Lisbon’s Electricity Museum to support Control Arms’ fight for the imminent Arms Trade Treaty. Conceived as a powerful awareness catalyst in the public service category, the campaign presented viewers with an exhibition of abstract paintings whose austere beauty carried a concealed violence: each artwork, at first a seemingly innocuous composition, was in fact a visual metaphor for the trauma of gun violence, its true subject clarified via placards that unveiled the stories of real gunshot victims hidden beneath the surface. The creative leap resided in deploying what Clapboard’s taxonomy would classify as FORMAT#3—Symbolize the Problem, diverting from direct depictions of violence and instead inviting audiences into a process of revelation; the initial ambiguity presses viewers to confront the invisible and often ignored realities of the unregulated arms trade, with the emotional payload unlocked only through closer engagement. Each placard’s QR code served as a pivot from contemplation to visceral understanding, offering access to ballistics test videos directly simulating the narratives referenced by the paintings—most strikingly in executions such as Young girl, victim of a stray bullet, which foregrounds the indiscriminate collateral suffering endemic to conflicts fueled by uncontrolled arms flows. By merging physical curation with an online counterpart—where global visitors could experience the art, stories, and video simulations—Leo Burnett Lisbon extended the exhibition’s reach far beyond its Lisbon starting point, culminating in a showcase at Control Arms’ opening press briefing at the United Nations Secretariat in New York, precisely when the stakes for treaty passage were at their zenith. This campaign fuses emotional storytelling with the immediacy of interactivity and the dissonance of aesthetic beauty masking horrific reality, challenging a hardened international audience inside institutions as much as it unsettles museum-goers and activists online. The film medium, underpinning the exhibition, amplifies the drama of conversion from abstraction to stark truth, demanding a reconsideration of what is visible and what remains conveniently unseen in the arms trade debate. By steering clear of traumatic literalism and instead leveraging art’s capacity for analogy, The exhibition that shouldn’t exist reframes awareness in humanitarian advocacy, demonstrating that the most confronting communication is often what creeps up on audiences instead of bludgeoning them into submission. The campaign earns 74/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. This matters to the industry because it signals that in public service work, innovation in creative format can transform passive awareness into active confrontation when audiences are compelled to connect the dots themselves.

Call Glenn - Child Focus | Clapboard Ad Archive — archive collection thumbnail

Call Glenn - Child Focus | Clapboard Ad Archive

Call Glenn is a 2023 public interest campaign by Child Focus and VML Belgium that confronts the devastating consequences of online exploitation of minors through the phenomenon of exposing, where intimate images are shared without consent, using the tragic story of Glenn, a 15-year-old victim who took his own life after his private nude photo was circulated online. The campaign’s central innovation is the reactivation of Glenn’s mobile phone on the European Day for the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, inviting the public to call his number and hear a voicemail message recorded with Glenn’s original provider voice explaining his absence and urging callers to leave their full names as signatures for a petition demanding stronger online protections for minors. This interactive mechanism transforms Glenn’s unreachable phone into a potent symbol of loss and the urgent need for systemic change, turning a personal tragedy into a collective call to action. The campaign’s multi-channel rollout includes online videos featuring Belgian celebrities, a TV spot, radio, digital out-of-home, and an online campaign film, all centering on Glenn’s phone as the emotional and narrative fulcrum. The dedicated website deepens engagement by sharing Glenn’s mother’s testimony, providing resources for victims, and enabling reports of exposing incidents, while tracking the volume of missed calls as measurable support for the petition. The campaign quickly surpassed the 25,000-signature threshold required in Belgium to influence the political agenda, reaching over 37,000 calls within a week and compelling Child Focus to prepare a parliamentary presentation of Glenn’s phone alongside demands for legislative reform. By employing a strategy Clapboard classifies as FORMAT#3—Symbolize the Problem, the campaign eschews graphic depictions of abuse in favor of using Glenn’s silent phone and voicemail as tangible stand-ins for the scale and human cost of online exploitation, making the issue viscerally felt without explicit imagery. Clapboard rates this campaign 78/100 in its global creative archive. Call Glenn exemplifies how public service campaigns can harness personal narrative and innovative audience interaction to convert individual grief into widespread political mobilization while demonstrating that symbolic storytelling remains a powerful tool in addressing complex social issues in the digital age.

Recruitment Campaign — archive collection thumbnail

Recruitment Campaign

In July 2024, Teach for Ukraine, in collaboration with linza agency, launched a powerful recruitment campaign aimed at attracting motivated young professionals to teach in small towns and villages across Ukraine. This Content, Digital, and Film media campaign, deeply rooted in education and public interest sectors, leverages emotional storytelling and authentic voices to inspire participation in a critical mission during a time of conflict. The campaign began with a compelling video manifesto designed to evoke the transformative sparkle in the eyes of students and teachers alike, capturing the heartfelt impact of teaching. Following this, four short Reels featured candid interviews with past participants, sharing their unique experiences and personal journeys, effectively humanizing the program’s influence with four distinct stories of change. To address common fears and misconceptions, the campaign included three stylized collage Reels-explainers that creatively debunked barriers to entry, each beginning with a powerful nod to the manifesto’s closing scenes, tracing the emotional shift from doubt to empowerment, culminating in the decision to apply. This narrative approach was praised for its completeness and relatability, making the application process seem like a natural and attainable step. High-quality social media targeting complemented the video assets, ensuring that the messages reached genuinely interested and motivated candidates. The campaign's impact was significant: over three months, more than 300 applications and approximately 1,500 registrations were received from individuals eager to contribute to educational change in Ukraine. The project was recognized not only as a recruitment drive but as a pivotal movement encouraging young people to expand their horizons, embrace a fulfilling and adventurous life, and become agents of change in uncertain times. Supported by the financial backing of WNISEF, Teach for Ukraine’s Teaching and Leadership Development Programme continues to champion equal educational opportunities for all children, regardless of their location, with linza agency’s creative communications proving essential in sustaining this vital mission for the new chapter of Ukraine’s future.

New TV advert promises 'hassle free' heat pumps - Good Energy | Clapboard Ad Archive — archive collection thumbnail

New TV advert promises 'hassle free' heat pumps - Good Energy | Clapboard Ad Archive

Good Energy’s 2023 campaign Fill your home with Good Energy harnesses the power of animated metaphor to reposition heat pumps as the premium, hassle-free answer to sustainable home heating in the UK public service landscape. Conceived by McCann Bristol, the 20-second TV advert sidesteps product literalism and instead dramatizes the discomfort of inadequate or environmentally unfriendly heating through a striking image: a family home depicted as physically deflating, a visual proxy for compromised comfort and green aspirations. As the soulful narration of Lemar accompanies the narrative, two animated engineers install a Good Energy heat pump, restoring the home to its full, warm stature—a powerful, accessible analogy for both emotional and functional rejuvenation. This approach sits squarely within Clapboard’s FORMAT#3—Symbolize the Problem, where storytelling pivots on an analogy that crystallizes consumer pain points and demonstrates the brand’s solution in immediate, relatable terms. The campaign’s core proposition is clear and audience-driven: Good Energy’s fully in-house, expert-led service promises to remove the complexity that often deters homeowners from making the shift to heat pumps, repositioning an intimidating energy transition as a smooth, all-inclusive journey from initial design to post-installation care. Supported by digital retargeting and local PR activity, the TV asset operates as a brand beacon, reaching an audience actively seeking dependable, sustainable energy alternatives amid the dominance of established suppliers like Octopus, Bulb, SSE, E.ON, and ScottishPower. Good Energy leverages its challenger credentials and customer-centric reputation, drawing sharp contrast with a market saturated by generic green claims, and making a bold bid for leadership in the evolving public utility sector. The campaign doubles down on emotional storytelling, fusing the relatability of the deflating home with a premium service promise, and is bolstered by media strategy that ensures the core message is reinforced wherever target consumers are weighing their energy options. The campaign earns 63/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. As more UK utilities compete to own the narrative around home energy transition, this marks a textbook example of how scene-setting symbolism and service-focused messaging can shift perceptions in a technical product category while paving the way for large-scale consumer adoption.

The First Digital Nation (case study) - Government of Tuvalu | Clapboard Ad Archive — archive collection thumbnail

The First Digital Nation (case study) - Government of Tuvalu | Clapboard Ad Archive

The First Digital Nation campaign from the Government of Tuvalu, created by The Monkeys (Accenture Song), stands as a defining moment in public service communications in Year 2023, reframing the existential threat of climate-driven inundation as both a legal and symbolic crisis demanding urgent international attention. With the physical disappearance of Tuvalu forecast within a generation—potentially erasing its sovereignty under international law—Minister Simon Kofe’s landmark COP27 address became the platform for unveiling a radical solution: Tuvalu’s migration to full digital statehood, beginning with the digitization of its land and core national infrastructure on the cloud. This was not a distant thought experiment but a meticulously orchestrated act of digital nationcraft launched under the world’s gaze, with the agency leveraging FORMAT#3—Symbolize the Problem, as defined in Clapboard’s creative taxonomy, to dramatize Tuvalu’s calamity in a way no conventional data point or emotive plea ever could. By staging Kofe’s speech from Te Afualiku, the country’s smallest and most vulnerable island, and unveiling mid-address that the rapidly deteriorating setting was a digital replica, the creative executed a jarring metaphor for both loss and resurrection—turning the idea of a vanishing territory into a visceral, shareable moment that traveled from the COP stage to trending conversations worldwide. With zero media budget, the campaign reached 2.1 billion people and secured coverage in over 350 global publications, catalyzing historic diplomatic responses including the establishment of a Loss and Damage Fund and the irrevocable step of nine nations recognizing Tuvalu’s digital sovereignty—saving its maritime boundaries, international rights, and cultural viability for a new legal reality. The campaign’s strategic focus on activating climate-fatigued leaders and a wider global audience, previously unmoved by familiar narratives of Pacific vulnerability, demonstrates a masterclass in reframing issue-advocacy: by embodying Tuvalu’s loss as an act of digital rebirth, the campaign forced a re-examination of the definitions underpinning nationhood and the international order. The work, recognized by a Cannes Lions Titanium Grand Prix, proves the power of creative media to deliver not simply awareness, but concrete policy shifts at the highest level. The campaign earns 89/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. This work matters because it signals that in the age of existential climate threat, the boundaries of nation branding and advocacy are not only redrawn but virtually remade.

Campaign Proposition

The campaign “A Few Degrees More” leverages the unique setting of the Leopold Museum in Vienna to communicate the urgent realities of climate change through an innovative, experiential intervention. By physically tilting 15 iconic paintings by Klimt, Schiele, and Courbet to reflect the precise degrees of projected regional temperature increases, the campaign embodies the abstract scientific data in a tangible, visual form that disrupts visitor expectations. This approach translates complex climate forecasts into a visceral experience, emphasizing the campaign’s core value: raising awareness of the environmental consequences of even slight increases in global temperature and the resulting threats to biodiversity, sea levels, and ecosystems. Strategically, the campaign taps into the cultural and intellectual engagement of museum audiences, who are typically receptive to thoughtful, interpretive messages, and uses art as a universal language to bridge scientific knowledge and public understanding. It employs a creative angle by integrating science and art, turning the museum itself into a platform for climate education. The unexpected visual distortion of revered artworks provokes curiosity and discussion both onsite and across social media, effectively expanding reach. Media coverage timed with the UN climate report amplified the message’s authority and urgency, positioning the campaign as a credible, socially relevant intervention that transcends conventional informational efforts. This integrated experiential strategy ensures that complex climate data is not only communicated but emotionally felt, fostering deeper public engagement with environmental issues.

Creative Device

FORMAT#3 SYMBOLIZE THE PROBLEM — Uses symbols or analogies to represent the problem instead of showing it literally. The campaign “A Few Degrees More” fits FORMAT#3 SYMBOLIZE THE PROBLEM because it visualizes the abstract threat of climate change through a highly symbolic intervention: tilting world-famous landscape paintings to mirror the rise in global temperatures. Instead of showing literal environmental disasters or offering a direct solution, the campaign deploys the metaphor of “discomfort” caused by physical tilting as an immediate, visceral symbol of global warming’s destabilizing effects. This symbolic device compels viewers to tangibly sense the climate crisis’s consequences, echoing the campaign’s goal of making temperature increases more comprehensible and urgent.

Competitive Planks

Greenpeace Austria – Market Positioning Greenpeace Austria positions itself as a bold and grassroots-driven environmental NGO focusing on direct action and global campaigns to combat climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. Their strategic angle lies in mobilizing public activism and leveraging high-impact visual protests and digital engagement to influence policy and corporate behavior.

Austrian Red Cross – Market Positioning The Austrian Red Cross emphasizes humanitarian aid with a growing focus on climate resilience and disaster preparedness. Their market position combines trusted emergency response with educational campaigns about the social impacts of climate change, differentiating through community-based support and health-focused climate adaptation initiatives.

WWF Austria – Market Positioning WWF Austria positions itself as a scientifically grounded conservation leader advocating nature-based solutions to climate change. They differentiate via integrative campaigns that merge biodiversity preservation with climate action, often collaborating with policymakers, businesses, and the public to foster sustainable lifestyles and systemic environmental change.

Global 2000 – Market Positioning Global 2000 stands out as Austria’s largest independent environmental organization engaged in evidence-based activism and public awareness on pollution, climate policy, and sustainable development. Their strength lies in rigorous scientific research combined with legal advocacy, aiming to hold governments and corporations accountable for environmental commitments.

Klimabündnis Austria – Market Positioning Klimabündnis Austria uniquely focuses on fostering local climate action through cooperative alliances between municipalities and indigenous communities. They differentiate themselves by promoting practical, bottom-up climate solutions and cultural exchange, positioning as facilitators of community empowerment and participatory sustainability governance.