Bring Your Movie Love + Nothing But the Truth: Advertising 2022 Winners

One tells a fantasy, the other the truth, but both these Gold-winning works highlight not only advertising’s diverse forms, but also how advertising publicizes what they’re promoting.

With the Oscars happening earlier this week, it was nice to be back to an in-person show (all the drama notwithstanding). The year before, the presence of COVID-19 caused some major changes to the presentation of the awards, like limiting the number of people attending the gala to primarily nominees and presenters and pre-recorded music segments. Despite this, the 2021 Oscars was an event to look forward to in part thanks to the “2021 Oscars Art Series” (above).

Created by AMPAS Creative, the creative branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the series plays on the tagline for the 2021 ceremony, which was “Bring Your Movie Love”. A group of international artists was invited to design Oscar statuettes and custom posters inspired by what movies mean to them. The result is a series showing the Oscar statuette in all its glory with bright colors, funky patterns, and various effects, from soft spray paint-like gradients to embroidered shapes. Each piece stands on its own with its fun style, yet when all put together, we have a coherent collection that any film lover would love to decorate their walls with.

Shifting from posters to video, the next gold-winning advertisement featured by Graphis is “Truth” (above), made by the award-winning advertising agency, Devito/Verdi. Over the course of the 4-minute long commerical, the concept of truth is highlighted as a vessel to showcase how Devito/Verdi differs from other agencies with how they approach advertising and calling out how other commercials may place an emphasis on the attraction factor of a product while concealing the truth about it. 

Intercut with clips from movies, Devito/Verdi puts their money where their mouth is by discussing case studies of their own work, such as the firms’ partnership with New York City at the beginning of COVID-19 where they created and launched a multimedia campaign urging New Yorkers to stay home to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. So many medicinal advertisements depict imagery of individuals happy while managing their condition but hide the side effects that could cause further illness or fatality in the fine print rather than at the forefront. Devito/Verdi doesn’t do that, and is something they pride themselves on. In their approach statement, they state, “At DeVito/Verdi our mission is to advertise through revealing truths. We tell our story and our client’s story by helping consumers realize a truth that makes them question, wonder, and feel intrigued.” 

If you’re interested in seeing more 2022 Graphis Annual winners, click here. If you’d like to enter our Advertising 2023 competition, click here.