Art Director’s Paul Forsyth and Cade Buckus of Doner, as well as Rick Iseppi of Extra Credit Projects, present the very best that Michigan has to offer in advertising.
Michigan has had quite the history. From their status as the roaring center of the American automotive industry to their saddened existential downturn following the Great Recession of the late naughts, Michigan has been looking to reinvent itself in new and exciting ways for the past decade. Whether it’s the revitalization of the downtown Detroit area as a hipster mecca or the significant tax breaks offered to filmmakers to make their projects in the state, Michigan has coming up with new and inventive ways in which to make itself relevant again. And it seems that the state’s advertising world is ready to do much the same.
Graphis is honored to showcase just some of the talent that is coming out of the Canadian border state, including the strikingly urgent work from Art Directors Paul Forsyth and Cade Buckus of Doner who have have launched a paramount ad campaign targeting the opioid crisis entitled Opioid: Know the Rx (ABOVE). With opioid addictions skyrocketing over the past decade, many states–including Michigan–have been hard hit by the avalanche of overdoes and hospitalizations. The gold-winning campaign features two ads, one with a grenade (ABOVE, RIGHT) and the other a gun (ABOVE, LEFT). Each details the life-or-death risks involved with prescription medication abuse by stating at the bottom, “opioids kill more than pain.” It’s an arresting message, one that demonstrates the state’s desperation to put an end to the epidemic.
