Hasta La Creative!

Don’t Panic London launched a PSA campaign for international humanitarian aid charity Human Appeal, exploring the causes of child mortality around the world in a spot entitled “Shine A Light.”

Timed to coincide with the month of Ramadan, since charitable donations are an important part its observance, the spot shows two children playing when suddenly one of their shadows appears to be frozen in place. As the girl looks back for her friend, she sees in his place a sculpture made of faucet dripping dirty water, damaged medical equipment, rotting food, weapons and ammunition. Each object signifies an element of Human Aid’s work, such as the damaged medical equipment representing the 400 million people without access to adequate healthcare or the rotting food signifying the 3 million children who lose their lives to malnutrition each year. At the end of the spot, the boy returns to life and hugs his friend, followed by the message “6.3M children need saving,” and “Help #ShineALight in the darkness.” It’s a harrowing reminder of all the problems facing children around the world and a call to action that’s hard to ignore. Of course, by now Don’t Panic London has made a name for itself with such efforts, including the recent “What Happens Next” for World Vision.

Credits:

Agency: Don’t Panic London
Creative Director: Richard Beer
Project Manager: Jane Marshall/Louis Geary

Production House: Knucklehead
Director: Markus Lundqvist
Executive Producer: Mary Calderwood
Producer: Tina Pawlik
Production Assistant: Bertie Berkeley
1st Assistant Director: Dan Gibling
2nd Assistant Director: Spencer Wilson
Runner: Andy Luck
Runner: Zac Moss
Runner: Miles Lacey
Director of Photography: Martin Hill
Steadicam Operator: Tom Wilkinson
Focus Puller: Ant Hugill
2nd Assistant Camera: Ben Worthington
DIT: Jayson Hunte
Gaffer: Mike Casserly
Electrician: Kevin Robertson
Electrician Trainee: Barney Casserly
Genny Op: Kevin McFadden
Art Director: Laura D’Asta
Set Design Assistant: Minnie Carver
Sculpture: The Arch Model Studio
Sculpture Design: Andy Gent
Wardrobe Stylist: Lucy Heather
Make Up Designer: Jess Summer
Chaperone: Julie Tyrrell
Boy: Lorenzo Giannetti
Girl: Sofiya Yates Rahman
Casting Director: Amanda Tabak

Editing: Stitch TV
Editor: Phil Currie (Stitch)

Sound Design: Wave
Sound Designer: Martin Leitner

Post production: Glassworks
Colorist: Duncan Russell
Flame Lead: Duncan Malcom
Flame: Nina Mosand
Flame: Sal Wilson
Producer: Abi Klimaszewska

A film crew investigates “superhero” sightings in India, Kenya and Mexico, interviewing needy kids in this touching spot for Save the Children.

“They did something magical and the maize grew from the ground,” one child says. “He came and destroyed the mosquitoes,” reports another. “She flies with the clouds and she gives water,” says a third.

These are real kids, not actors, and their performances infuse this minute-long pseudo-documentary with considerable energy, charm and emotional resonance. Of course, the superheroes in question aren’t of the Justice League variety, a point conveyed with great poignancy and perfect pitch by creative agency Don’t Panic and Unit 9 directors Greg Hardes and Jacob Proud.

“The key to this project was the imagination of the kids,” says Proud. “It was important that we only planted the seed of a story in their minds, and then let them run away with that story in the way only a child can. They were writing the script for us—all we had to do was turn the camera on and let their imaginations run wild.”

The film supports Save the Children’s Race for Survival campaign, and its release is timed to coincide with today’s UN International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. (This marks the third stirring Save the Children effort for Don’t Panic and Unit 9, which previously teamed up for “Reverse” and “Most Shocking Second a Day,” both of which dealt with the conflict in Syria. The pair also collaborated on “Everything Is Not Awesome,” a film for Greenpeace calling on Lego to end its relationship with Shell.)

“Superheroes: Eyewitness Reports” was shot on three continents in roughly a week. “The pure scale of the task was intimidating,” Proud says. “The locations were so photogenic. Our natural instinct was to capture nicely composed, well-lit shots, but we kept having to remind each other that we were playing the role of a run-and-gun documentary crew and it needed to not feel too cinematic.”

The footage is beautifully photographed, with the accents on hope rather than despair. It’s the perfect way to deliver the message that caring is the ultimate “superpower,” so anyone can #BeASuperhero.

Greenpeace takes a page from Chipotle’s marketing playbook—haunting animation plus a distressing cover of a well-known song—in its continuing assault on Lego for partnering with Shell on a set of Shell-branded Lego products.

Attacking a beloved brand like Lego isn’t easy. But if you’re going to do it, you need to do it right. And this spot, showing a Lego version of the Arctic drowning in a sea of oil, is incredibly well made by creative agency Don’t Panic—who, you’ll remember, also did the memorable Save the Children ad which brought the Syrian war to London.

The visuals in the Greenpeace spot are beautiful, and the ethereal cover of “Everything Is Awesome,” from The Lego Movie, is the perfectly ironic backdrop. Yes, it is angering people (check out the YouTube comments if you’re looking for a grand old time), but Greenpeace is rarely interested in making friends as it pursues its enemies.

You can debate whether Lego was right to partner with Shell—here is Greenpeace’s point of view, and here is Lego’s reply to the attack ad. But as a pure PR play, “Everything Is NOT Awesome” (which has topped 1 million views since Tuesday) is itself pretty awesome.