With ad agencies facing increased financial pressures, agency budget cuts have become an all too common reality. To promote the 2017 Marketing Awards, Canada’s premiere advertising and marketing award show, we created a political attack ad to oppose award show budget cuts. This film adopts the formula of political attack ads to point out that, while agencies claim creativity is their top priority, most agencies would sooner cut the award show budget than the budgets of other perks like cab chits, holiday parties, and Friday beer carts.

The film concludes with a mock political demonstration with protesters holding signs that spoofed iconic political protest slogans. To ensure agencies took notice, Canada’s top creative directors from Rethink, Leo Burnett, BBDO, Juniper Park, Zulu Alpha Kilo, and several others appeared as the protesters.