Better Boys Trips - First Choice, CALM | Clapboard Ad Archive
Better Boys Trips from First Choice, developed with Ogilvy PR for the travel and leisure market, represents a marked shift in how group male travel can be positioned, leveraging an earned-first integrated approach in tandem with Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) to challenge the entrenched expectations of the classic lads holiday. This 2025 campaign anchors itself in the discomfort and anxiety men aged 18–35 experience under the weight of performative masculinity, deploying research that is as commercially salient as it is culturally urgent: 81 percent of men in this cohort report feeling pressured to appear macho, while two-thirds struggle to keep pace with the relentless party culture that defines most all-boys escapes. Distilling these insights, First Choice and CALM recast the all-boys holiday as an opportunity for actual connection and wellbeing, introducing curated itineraries for iconic party destinations like Prague where the focus shifts from excess to authenticity—think rogue adventures, creative downtime, and a brand proposition aligned with mental health advocacy. The creative thrust is amplified through a FORMAT#8 Ongoing Characters or Celebrities framework as classified by Clapboard’s 12-format taxonomy, with YouTube personality George Clarke and his influencer cohort embedded as narrators and surrogates for the Gen Z and millennial male audience; their flagship YouTube film, We Went to the World's DRUNKEST City for a Wholesome Weekend, amassed over 1.3 million views, demonstrating the effectiveness of peer-led storytelling in reframing lads holidays as pressure-free, emotionally honest, and socially responsible. Activating through influencer partnerships, earned media, and a limited-edition Everpress shirt collaboration funneling funds to CALM, the campaign straddles commerce, cause, and culture with tactical clarity, validating travel as a platform for advocacy as well as leisure. The integrated work is notable for collapsing the boundaries between content and communications, letting real personalities guide the narrative rather than abstract creative, and embedding the social mission into both product and experience in a way that connects meaningfully with an under-served audience. With the campaign earning 83/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive, Better Boys Trips signals that purpose-driven repositioning, not just tactical innovation, will shape the next wave of travel marketing as social pressure and wellbeing rise on the industry agenda.
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