Recipeace - Peace Day - White Pencil Competition
Peace One Day/D&AD
Issue 26 | March 2013
Agency
Leo Burnett Chicago
Creative Team
Global Chief Creative Officer: Mark Tutssel Chief Creative Officer: Susan Credle Executive Creative Director: Jeanie Caggiano Creative Directors: Phil Jungmann, Matt Miller Design Director: Alisa Wolfson Copywriter: Adam Ferguson Art Director: Kate Harding-Jackson Senior Designers: Kelly Dorsey, Kyle Poff, Peter Ty Designer: Casey Martin
Production Team
Executive Producer: Rob Tripas Senior Producer: Laurie Gustafson Production Designer: Chris Apap
Other Credits
Account Directors: Karla Flannery, Josh Raper Assistant Account Executives: Riley Bernardin, Dane Gunderson Creative Resource Manager: Joe Maggiore
Date
September 2012
Background
Peace One Day had created International Peace Day, a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace within and among all nations and peoples. However, since its inception in 2001, the day had not gained momentum or captivated an audience.
The campaign was created in response to the D&AD White Pencil brief, which tasked the world's creative communities to establish September 21 as a global, self-sustaining, annual day of peace.
Idea
One of the oldest ways to turn enemies into friends has always been to share a meal. This insight led directly to Recipeace, a movement that brought conflicting people together over food.
RecipeaceDay.org was the hub of the campaign, where people could pledge to settle their differences over a meal and find three easy ways to fulfil that pledge:
1) Create their own peace meals from recipes that brought people together in the past, like the plum pudding soldiers on both sides shared during WWI.
2) Browse participating Recipeace restaurants to make a reservation.
3) Tweet who they thought should come together over food.
Leveraging the universal symbol for peace, the olive branch, people were encouraged to truly interact with the campaign. From out-of-home signage displaying the similarities between weapons and ingredients, to napkins, placemats and table tents and a specially designed olive oil bottle, the idea reached out to millions of people across the globe, one meal at a time.
Results
Leo Burnett beat all other entrants to win D&AD's inaugural White Pencil award, a competition designed to recognize ideas that had the potential to effect real and positive change in the world. In co-ordination with Peace One Day, Recipeace started in Chicago before the simple idea of solving conflict over a meal extended to people all over the world. Chefs, restaurants, food ambassadors and foodies around the globe were invited to join the Recipeace movement. It led to thousands of pledges from all over the world in support of International Peace Day.
Our Thoughts
One of the reasons I am an avid student of direct marketing is because direct marketers have both the techniques and the desire to change behaviours. Rather than just being of influence it means being an agent of change. That’s why Directory is a big supporter of the Cannes Chimaera project and D&AD’s White Pencil initiative. These competitions give creative agencies the opportunities to demonstrate to clients what advertising is now capable of doing. Not only can we be a force for good, we can also demonstrate our skills to an audience who may come to value them – and pay for them. Well, we live in hope.
Many congratulations to Leo Burnett Chicago for finding the time and energy to do the work – and for winning.