Advertising Research Foundation or ARF David Ogilvy Awards recognizes the research and creativity behind the most innovative advertising campaigns across a variety of categories.

The Courageous Conversation Global Foundation’s (CCGF) “Not A Gun” campaign was announced as the Grand Winner of the 2020 ARF (Advertising Research Foundation) David Ogilvy Awards during a virtual ceremony this evening, sponsored by Ipsos and Twitter. 

Celebrating over 25 years, the ARF David Ogilvy Awards honor the research and analytics insights behind the most successful advertising campaigns and recognize the best of all submitted campaigns released during the last two years.

The award ceremony this year also acted as a fundraiser for the ARF Workforce Initiative for Diversity and Excellence (WIDE), which was recently established to improve the quality and diversity of the future workforce of the advertising, media and research/analytics industries. All proceeds from purchased tickets directly benefited ARF WIDE.

More about “Not a Gun” Campaign

In addition to being named Grand Winner, CCGF received the Gold honor in both the “Social Responsibility” and “Government, Public Service & Non-Profit” categories. CCGF’s goal for the “Not A Gun” campaign was to shed light on racial profiling by law enforcement, while walking the fine line of not demonizing police officers, and to encourage the public to sign their petition calling for mandatory de-escalation and implicit bias training for police departments.

CCGF’s creative agency, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, used secondary and primary research, including online implicit bias tests, surveys, and qualitative interviews spanning three years, to inform and test their creative execution. While determining the rate of unarmed Black people killed by police, Goodby Silverstein & Partners also uncovered that a significant number of Black victims were holding an innocuous object (or nothing at all) when killed. This led them to create a campaign that juxtaposed the perceived danger of BIPOC with something as innocent as a candy bar. Since the campaign launched in February, CCGF has received a 900% increase in training requests.

“In a year that has been particularly tumultuous for several reasons, it is important to see successful brands and organizations using focused, robust data and insights to fuel their campaigns,” said Scott McDonald, Ph.D., president and CEO at the ARF. “This has led to provocative, powerful and compelling creative that will be looked to as inspiration for years to come. I would like to congratulate all of our winners for their exceptional work this year and look forward to seeing what they do next.”

The 2020 ARF David Ogilvy Awards Gold, Silver and Bronze recipients for each category are:

Spotlight Categories

BEST BRAND TRANSFORMATION

• GOLD: No Is Beautiful | Pure Leaf
• SILVER: Sip Your Sunshine | Tropicana

BEST CONSUMER EXPERIENCE

• GOLD: Ditch JUUL | truth
• SILVER: r/Layer | Adobe

BEST NEW OR EMERGING BRAND

• GOLD: Bublé vs. bubly | bubly sparkling water (PepsiCo)
• SILVER: Keep Moving |Gatorade Zero

DATA INNOVATION AWARD

• GOLD: Zillow Offers Launch | Zillow Offers
• SILVER: Talenti Layers | Unilever; Talenti

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AWARD

• GOLD:Not A Gun | Courageous Conversation Global Foundation (CCGF)
• SILVER:Ditch JUUL | truth

• BRONZE: No Is Beautiful | Pure Leaf

Vertical Categories

BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS

• SILVER: Best of Zillow | Zillow Group

DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER

• GOLD: Zillow Offers Launch | Zillow Offers

FASHION, BEAUTY & HOME

• GOLD: Meow Mix Remix | Meow Mix

FINANCIAL SERVICES & INSURANCE

• GOLD: ‘Better Big Bank’ | Bendigo Bank
• GOLD: Made Ready | Citizens Bank
• SILVER: Clearly Different Money Management | Fisher Investments
• BRONZE: Sonic Melody | Mastercard

FOOD & BEVERAGE

• GOLD: No Is Beautiful | Pure Leaf
• SILVER: Sip Your Sunshine |Tropicana
• BRONZE: That Jif’ing Good | Jif

GOVERNMENT, PUBLIC SERVICE & NON-PROFIT

• GOLD: Not A Gun | Courageous Conversation Global Foundation (CCGF)

• SILVER: Seize the Awkward | Youth Suicide Prevention
• BRONZE: Tested on Humans| truth

HEALTH & PERSONAL CARE

• GOLD:Skin Stories | Unilever; Dove
• SILVER:World Looks Different | Advil
• BRONZE:APAC Healthy Breakfast Campaign | Herbalife Nutrition

MULTICULTURAL

• SILVER:Nissan Ambicultural | Nissan USA
• SILVER:This Rice Unites | Riviana Foods
• BRONZE:No One Gets A Diploma Alone | Ad Council

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

• GOLD:Zillow Offers Launch | Zillow Offers

RETAIL & RESTAURANTS

• SILVER:BuzzFeed + Petco Nutrition | Petco

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• GOLD:There’s No Place Like Sports | ESPN
• SILVER:We Love It Here | SEC Network (ESPN)
• BRONZE:The Last Dance | ESPN

TECH & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

• GOLD:Zillow Offers Launch | Zillow Offers
• SILVER:It’s Switching Time | Chromebook
• BRONZE:r/Layer | Adobe

Founded more than 80 years ago, the ARF is dedicated to creating, curating, and sharing objective, industry-level advertising research to enable members to make a true impact on their advertising and build marketing leadership within their organizations. It has more than 400 members from leading brand advertisers, agencies, research firms and media-tech companies.