'Show Us Something We Haven’t Seen' asks NYF Advertising Awards in new bold campaign by BCW
Posted on 2023 Feb,27

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New York Festivals Advertising Awards and BCW have worked on a bold Call for Entry campaign that challenges entrants to “Show Us Something We Haven’t Seen.” The work is quite arresting for anyone outside the advertising industry but would make even the most jaded advertising executive – or New Yorker – stop and take notice.

BCW’s creative team of Global Chief Creative Officer Fede Garcia, Diego Bertagni, Executive Vice President and Executive Creative Director, North America and David Holman, Group Creative Director, North America, and their colleagues created a vivid print and film campaign that embraces New York’s in-your-face attitude and its rich history of culture and creativity.

The creative showcases the vibrant, challenging, exhilarating 24-hour urban existence of New Yorkers – an existence that is routinely punctuated by scenes of the brazen and genuinely absurd. In making the campaign, BCW partnered with street photographers and videographers who have a long and enduring relationship with the city and its “wildlife.”  

In one execution, a completely naked woman is seen exiting a taxi. In another, a pinstripe-suited executive answers email on his e-reader while hanging upside down on a crowded subway. In another, a heavily armed police officer stands on the street to a pink-tinted chicken that is wearing a necklace. 

“Since 1957 NYF has celebrated work from around the globe that embodies the breakthrough, avant-garde attitude of the city that New York Festivals calls home,” said Scott Rose, President, New York Festivals Advertising Competitions. “BCW’s bold campaign tapped New York City photographers whose images embraced NYC’s urban vibe and shined a revealing light on the hustle and the no bullsh*t attitude that fosters creative excellence in NYC.”

Added Fede Garcia, Global Chief Creative Officer, BCW, “If you’re going to submit something to the New York Festivals, it better be mind-boggling, it better be fresh, it better be groundbreaking. Gotham City has seen it all, so go all in and show us ‘something we haven’t seen before.’”

BCW engaged Henry DaCosta to direct and edit the film portion of the campaign, a two-minute New York manifesto that is an ode to all things fast, chaotic, beautiful, real and edgy life that are New York.

“The print and film campaigns challenge our entrants to enter their boldest work that’s worthy of the city where creativity reigns and where getting attention is almost impossible,” said Rose.

“Show Us Something We Haven’t Seen” is running via a full social media campaign.