Winners of The Drum Chip Shop Awards 2021 revealed

Read on for a taste of the work that has landed this year’s Chips, which were revealed at a new hybrid event ceremony, filmed before a live audience at The Drum Labs in Shoreditch. If you missed it, you can watch the full ceremony below.

Grand Prix/Covid Recovery Campaign, Ad or Experience

Campaign: W**k From Home

Agency: BBD Perfect Storm

Created by: Jacob Hill-Gowing, senior art director; Seb Hill, creative director; Cory Eisentraut, creative partner

This campaign tackles a problem nobody saw coming. In the face of successive lockdowns thanks to Covid-19, British men have stopped donating sperm. Donations have plummeted by 66%. At the same time, unemployment has risen drastically with 693,000 people losing their jobs directly because of the pandemic – at least some of whom are assumed to be men.

Since each deposit earns the donor £35, the team behind this ad though, “That’s a lot of potential sperm donors sitting on their hands at home, when they could be putting them to better use.”

The plan: cheeky, provocatively placed social and digital ads that encourage men to visit the London Sperm Bank WFH microsite and sign up to become a donor. They would then receive their ‘W**k From Home’ kit in the post, complete with a how-to guide, ‘Men at W**k’ door hanger, donation pot, ice pack and temperature-controlled courier package.

Sherina Florence, group creative director at 72andSunny, had this to say: “The campaign is phenomenal. Coming at a time when work in the real world wasn't necessarily surprising or fun, this was a campaign that was not only relevant but featured hard-working assets – from social to direct mail.” As for why it won the year’s top honor? “It was super surprising and delightful. We awarded it not just because it was great but because we want to see more work of this caliber – contextual, exciting, and brave.”

One Minute Briefs x Chip Shop Challenge

Winner: Absolute Tomfoolery for Fat Boys Fish & Chips

Created by: Tom Wilding

This has been a longstanding partnership and, according to One Minute Briefs founder Nick Entwistle, the awards and OMB have a lot in common. “Our ethos very much echoes that of the Chips Shop Awards – we feel that all creativity should be celebrated.”

Each year the brief changes and this year the mission took creatives back to the origins of the awards. The task? To create posters for their local chip shop.

Entwistle had this to say about the entries: “The creativity overall was outstanding but there can only be one winner. Tom Wilding received the Chip with this humorous take on the brief that I’m sure we can all relate to – not a chip in sight as the seagulls have nicked them because they are just that good! A brilliant entry that makes you smile.”

Best education

Campaign: Am (i) Normal?

Created by: Charlotte Alford & Lucy Donagh

There were two winners in this category.

This first campaign makes a bold opening statement: “Everywhere you look there are penises. They’re unavoidable!” But seeing them from a young age, anywhere from graffiti to cartoon doodles to rather more sinister lewd pictures, means the stigma has gone.

Alford and Donagh set out to balance the scale for people with female bodies. “By simplifying the way we see vulvas and the education we give to young wxmen about their bodies and sexuality, they can be free to work out what ‘normal’ means to them as individuals.” Their campaign plan starts with visually striking out-of-home, followed by a buzz-building social media campaign, pulling in celebrity endorsement and professional expertise to create a safe, supportive community.

Campaign: Mr Men Pride Collection

Created by: Luke Gray & Tom Carr

The goal of this second campaign to introduce diversity, inclusivity and acceptance to young children. The opening premise is that across media, the arts and literature there has been inadequate representation of the LGBTQ+ community, and that sweeping generalizations and stereotyping of that community can only be harmful.

These new suggestions to the enduringly popular Mr Men universe are designed to create inclusive human portraits, conveying a level of nuances to discussions of sexuality and gender from a young age. Gray and Carr believe this will better place us “to not only understand others but also ourselves, to engage with questions sensitively and inspire greater conversation around identity”.

Best Social/Best Campaign, Ad or Experience

Campaign: Guinness Stay at Home

Agency: @redballoonluke

Created by: Luke O’Reilly

This piece has its own story to it – one that embodies the spirit of the Chip Shop Awards. It was originally a Twitter entry into a One Minute Briefs competition, in conjunction with @TheStayingInn virtual pub. The world was just on the brink of lockdown and people were being encouraged not to go out and socialize.

The piece took on a life of its own over the ensuing 24 hours, being shared around the world online, even receiving headline attention in the marketing media press as ’The perfect Guinness Ad that wasn’t really a Guinness ad’.

A few days later, unbelievably, Guinness itself got in touch. The ad was made official, shared across the brand’s social channels. On top of its two Chip wins, this entry also won a Vinegar for Best Leisure and for Best Outdoor.

To see the full list of nominees and winners, visit the website.