Most Violent Time Of The Year Campaign | Clapboard Ad Archive

Most Violent Time Of The Year

Description

Released in Germany in November 2021, the NSFW campaign Most Violent Time Of The Year was developed for the German Animal Welfare Office and NOAH animal protection by the ad agency Preuss und Preuss GmbH. This bold film-based initiative, crafted under the creative direction of Michael Preuss, aims to confront viewers with the harsh realities animals face during the holiday season, often deemed the most violent time of the year for them. The campaign leverages a provocative and emotionally charged narrative to raise awareness about animal cruelty and the urgent need for protection, harnessing the power of visual storytelling to engage and challenge the audience. Notably, the German Animal Welfare Office underwent a rebranding in November 2023, changing its name from Deutsches Tierschutzbüro to ANINOVA, reflecting its evolving mission and expanding influence. Presented in German, the campaign's single film asset uses stark, impactful imagery and messaging to disrupt complacency and drive empathy, encouraging behavioral change and increased support for animal welfare initiatives. By positioning the holiday period as a critical moment when animal suffering peaks, the campaign taps into seasonal sentiments to maximize emotional resonance and mobilize public action, strengthening the partnership between the involved organizations and heightening public discourse around animal protection in Germany.

Credits

Client

NOAH animal protection, German Animal Welfare Office

Agency

Preuss und Preuss GmbH, Berlin/Stuttgart, Germany

More like this

Left Out - Caritas | Clapboard Ad Archive

Caritas’s 2018 digital campaign Left Out, crafted by Glow for the German public interest sector, takes a bold and unconventional stance during the Christmas season by deliberately spotlighting exclusion rather than the usual message of inclusion the brand is known for. This campaign harnesses a single, potent media asset to symbolically represent the emotional reality of social isolation experienced by marginalized individuals at a time culturally synonymous with warmth, community, and belonging. By reversing its own narrative to focus on what it means to be left out, Caritas disrupts festive optimism to confront audiences with the uncomfortable truth that not everyone shares in the season’s joy. This strategic choice aligns with what Clapboard’s taxonomy identifies as FORMAT#3—Symbolize the Problem—employing metaphor and conceptual inversion over direct depiction to deepen empathy and provoke reflection. The campaign’s digital format amplifies its reach across social channels, encouraging public discourse about loneliness and exclusion that often go unseen during communal holidays. This approach eschews a traditional problem-solution arc, instead using the act of exclusion as a symbolic device to challenge viewers to reconsider the true spirit of Christmas beyond surface-level goodwill. The nuanced emotional resonance of Left Out underscores Caritas’s enduring commitment to social causes by transforming the familiar holiday narrative into a call for sustained social responsibility. The campaign earns 63/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. Left Out matters to the advertising industry because it demonstrates how public interest campaigns can harness symbolic storytelling to disrupt entrenched cultural narratives and engage audiences in deeper social conversations when the risk of discomfort is embraced rather than avoided.

Campaign Proposition

The campaign "Most Violent Time Of The Year," developed by Preuss und Preuss GmbH for NOAH animal protection and the German Animal Welfare Office, addresses the heightened risk of animal cruelty during a specific period. Positioned as a public service initiative, the campaign seeks to illuminate the often overlooked incidence of violence towards animals, urging greater awareness and protective action. By leveraging documentary and social experiment genres, the film employs a realistic and unfiltered lens to confront viewers with the harsh realities animals face, thereby fostering empathy and social responsibility. Strategically, the campaign capitalizes on the insight that certain times of the year see increased animal mistreatment, a phenomenon not widely recognized by the public. Targeting German-speaking audiences through authentic storytelling, the campaign aims to disrupt complacency by exposing uncomfortable truths. The creative angle combines raw visual evidence with an evocative title, "The Most Violent Time Of The Year," to provoke reflection and motivate behavioral change. Additionally, the campaign benefits from the credibility of its established animal protection organizations, reinforcing the message’s urgency and legitimacy. Overall, the approach hinges on education through emotional impact, aligning with the public service market category’s goal of social improvement rather than commercial gain.

Creative Device

FORMAT#3 SYMBOLIZE THE PROBLEM — Uses symbols or analogies to represent the problem instead of showing it literally. The campaign title “Most Violent Time Of The Year” for NOAH Animal Protection and German Animal Welfare Office, paired with a documentary/social experiment genre, strongly suggests the use of symbolic or ironic analogy rather than a literal presentation. The title parodies the well-known holiday phrase “Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” implying a sharp contrast via symbolism to expose hidden or ignored violence against animals during a season typically associated with kindness and celebration. There is no evidence of a literal demonstration, narrative arc with a decisive product role, testimonial style, or direct comparison. Instead, the campaign likely leverages symbolic juxtaposition to highlight the problem of animal abuse, making FORMAT#3 the most accurate fit. ADVERTISING FORMATS EXPLAINED: https://www.clapboard.com/blog/branding-and-advertising/brand-strategy/12-advertising-creative-formats

Smallpox - World Health Organization | Clapboard Ad Archive — archive collection thumbnail

Smallpox - World Health Organization | Clapboard Ad Archive

Smallpox, the 2022 film campaign from the World Health Organization crafted by Germany’s Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, delivers an uncompromising vision of a world deprived of vaccination in the public service space by dramatizing the life-or-death stakes of a preventable epidemic. By centering its narrative on two sisters — Janet, stricken with smallpox and denied basic medical care, and Mary, her elder sibling determined to lead her to safety — the film transforms a global health crisis into an intimate family emergency, grounding the urgency and consequence of public health intervention in lived human experience. The agency employs a narrative approach that Clapboard’s taxonomy defines as FORMAT#5—Exemplary Story, assigning the core idea a structure in which the benefit or intervention at the heart of the campaign (here, vaccines and WHO’s critical health stewardship) is rendered as implicit yet unmistakably vital to the story’s resolution. Unlike didactic testimonial or factual demonstration, the storytelling here mobilizes emotional authenticity and escalating tension, employing the sisters’ desperate journey as a clear metaphor for the hope offered by global immunization efforts. From a production standpoint, the film’s atmospheric realism, detailed period styling, and stark visual language foreground the physical and social devastation wrought by unchecked disease, creating a persuasive contemporary parallel to the ongoing debates about vaccine access and public trust. Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg’s execution supports the World Health Organization’s market positioning as the principal architect of equitable health intervention, leveraging empathy and identification rather than abstract data or policy messaging — a decision that not only humanizes the WHO mission, but also stakes a claim for storytelling as a frontline tactic in the communication of humanitarian values. The campaign is calibrated for resonance with socially engaged, policy-aware audiences within Germany and internationally, serving to animate global health equity as a matter of immediate, personal consequence, and reframing immunization not as a distant clinical concern but as a daily act of protection and hope. This multi-layered approach is reinforced by the film’s public interest categorization and contemporary context, echoing the world’s pandemic-sensitized consciousness and the historic reality of eradicated diseases returning where prevention lapses. The campaign earns 71/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. The enduring relevance of Smallpox lies in its ability to crystallize the consequences of vaccine inequity with narrative economy and creative conviction, demonstrating that the most persuasive public health communications are those willing to look beyond the statistics to the lives at risk.

Dark Red - Deutsche Stammzellspenderdatei | Clapboard Ad Archive — archive collection thumbnail

Dark Red - Deutsche Stammzellspenderdatei | Clapboard Ad Archive

Dark Red for Deutsche Stammzellspenderdatei, created by Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in 2019, is a student film campaign that leverages the metaphor of vampirism to viscerally communicate the urgent need for stem cell donors within the public service category. The narrative centers on Lamar, a 12-year-old boy whose transformation into a vampire encapsulates the emotional and physical turmoil experienced by children battling blood cancer while awaiting life-saving donations. By embodying the patient’s vulnerability and latent desire for empowerment through the figure of a vampire—a creature defined by dependence on blood yet endowed with supernatural strength—the campaign engages a universal childhood fantasy to reframe the donor appeal from one of passive suffering to active agency. This symbolic storytelling approach aligns with what Clapboard's taxonomy identifies as FORMAT#3—Symbolize the Problem—eschewing direct medical imagery in favor of an evocative analogy that deepens audience empathy and understanding. The film’s singular media asset distills complex emotions into a compelling visual and narrative metaphor that resonates across a broad public interest audience, using the cinematic medium to foster an emotional connection that transcends conventional awareness efforts. Presented in German and produced within an academic context, the campaign demonstrates how student work can transcend its origins to deliver a potent message with professional polish and strategic insight. The transformation of Lamar into a Dracula-like figure serves as a visual anchor that challenges viewers to reconsider the role they can play in altering the fates of patients, effectively turning a mythic archetype into a call for real-world action. Clapboard rates this campaign 79/100. Dark Red exemplifies how public service advertising can harness imaginative symbolism to translate medical urgency into a culturally resonant narrative that motivates audiences to engage with a critical health issue.

Dinnertime - Salvation Army | Clapboard Ad Archive — archive collection thumbnail

Dinnertime - Salvation Army | Clapboard Ad Archive

Salvation Army’s 2018 campaign Dinnertime, created by Make it Simple for the Finnish market, confronts the acute reality of poverty during the Christmas season with a stark and emotionally charged film that centers on the universal ritual of family mealtime to expose the hardships faced by low-income families with children. This public interest initiative uses a FORMAT#2 SHOW THE PROBLEM approach as defined by Clapboard’s taxonomy, presenting the problem of holiday poverty in vivid, relatable terms before positioning donations to the Salvation Army as the direct and urgent solution. The campaign’s narrative unfolds through authentic storytelling and evocative visuals that create a compelling contrast between the warmth and togetherness traditionally associated with Christmas dinners and the cold, isolating experience of those struggling to provide even a basic meal. This contrast sharpens the emotional impact, transforming abstract statistics about poverty into a human story that demands attention and action. By anchoring its call to action on the dedicated campaign site www.joulupata.fi, Dinnertime offers a clear and accessible avenue for engagement, reinforcing the Salvation Army’s role as a trusted and effective aid organization during the holiday period. The campaign’s strategic communication capitalizes on the seasonal context when generosity is culturally amplified, yet it cuts through festive distractions by focusing on the harsh realities often hidden behind holiday cheer. Make it Simple’s creative execution underscores the social responsibility of the audience, moving beyond passive awareness to inspire tangible support that can restore dignity and hope to vulnerable families. Clapboard rates this 60/100 in its global creative archive. This campaign matters to the public service advertising category because it demonstrates how empathetic storytelling combined with a direct problem-solution narrative can effectively mobilize charitable giving during emotionally charged seasonal periods.

Marked for Life - Medaille Trust | Clapboard Ad Archive — archive collection thumbnail

Marked for Life - Medaille Trust | Clapboard Ad Archive

Marked for Life by Medaille Trust, developed in partnership with Brother Brother and rooted in the public service category, boldly reframes the tattoo as the central symbol in the battle against modern slavery and human trafficking in the United Kingdom in Year 2021. The campaign targets the harrowing reality that traffickers routinely brand their victims, a practice that leaves indelible marks both physically and psychologically, by enlisting skilled UK tattoo artists to transform these emblems of exploitation into powerful new symbols of hope and recovery. Rather than sensationalizing trauma or showing abuse explicitly, the campaign employs what Clapboard's taxonomy classifies as FORMAT#3—Symbolize the Problem: the tattoo becomes both the literal and metaphorical device through which the issue of trafficking is addressed, reworking marks of ownership into artistic statements of freedom. Medaille Trust’s strategy goes beyond narrative rehabilitation, embedding a practical framework for prevention by training the tattoo community to recognize subtle indicators of trafficking and exploitation, as traffickers often co-opt unwitting studios to brand victims. This dual focus—empowerment through transformation and intervention through industry education—positions the campaign as both a vehicle for survivor agency and a frontline disruption tool within the tattoo sector. Visually, the campaign harnesses evocative storytelling with refined VFX to document the journey from pain to agency, ensuring that survivors’ identities are protected by using actors while still delivering an authentic message of resilience. Within the competitive landscape of the anti-trafficking sector, where organizations like Anti-Slavery International, Hope for Justice, Unseen UK, and Stop the Traffik have established expertise in policy, direct rescue, and intelligence, Medaille Trust carves its own space by forging an alliance with creative professionals rarely implicated in the conversation, catalyzing cultural change from the studio floor outward. The content medium is meticulously deployed to raise public consciousness about the hidden epidemic of modern slavery in the UK, without recourse to graphic imagery or voyeurism, honoring the dignity of survivors while activating a new network of professional allies. Given the strategic alignment of survivor support, community education, and visual metaphor, Clapboard rates this 77/100. For the sector, Marked for Life sets a precedent for activating non-traditional partners in advocacy by reimagining the act of branding as a site of both harm and hope.