The inaugural Guardian Advertising Awards, launched to celebrate scale, influence and integrity across the publisher’s platforms, have recognised brands including Nurofen, Google Pixel and Charlie Bigham’s.
The Grand Prix award was given to Nurofen for its See My Pain campaign, which was praised by judges for its real-world impact in tackling awareness of the gender pain gap and the brand’s “commitment to addressing complex health challenges”. The campaign also won in the “everyday brands” category.
Google Pixel won the award for connecting with big moments for its campaign around the women’s World Cup that judges said “played a crucial role in closing the visibility gap in women’s football”.
eBay won the premium brands category for its Christmas campaign, which included influencers Patricia Bright, Jordan Stephens and Otegha Uwagba.
The toilet paper brand Who Gives a Crap won the category for “brands doing the right thing”. Judges praised the campaign for its “purpose-driven approach and creativity in conveying a meaningful message across two markets – the UK and Australia”.
A lifestyle and food content partnership that urged Guardian readers to take a night off cooking at the weekend and instead try Charlie Bigham’s meals won in the “challenger brands” category.
The Guardian’s chief advertising officer, Imogen Fox, said: “At the Guardian, we’ve become more famous for the advertising that we don’t take, rather than the ads we do. We wanted to change that.”
Fox, who hosted the awards in London on Wednesday evening, added: “The Guardian’s own advertising campaign demonstrates how we are ‘open to all, funded by many, beholden to no one’. For advertisers, that means we deliver a unique formula: scale, influence, and integrity – the cornerstones of effective advertising.”
The awards had more than 60 entries and were judged by a panel of industry experts.
