Graham, the Human Redesigned to Survive Car Crashes, Wins Best of Show at New York Festivals

Clemenger BBDO Melbourne has won Best of Show at New York Festivals for “Meet Graham,” the PSA campaign for Australia’s Transport Accident Commission (TAC) that involved the model creation of a human designed to withstand car-crash forces.

Automobiles have evolved much faster than humans. Graham was created by artist Patricia Piccinini, with help from a trauma surgeon and an accident research engineer, after she was commissioned to study the effects of road trauma on the human body. As the only “human” developed to withstand trauma on our roads, Graham is meant to make people stop and think about their own vulnerability, Clemenger says.

“Meet Graham” also won two Grand Prize Awards, which go to the best work in a category—in this case, Public Service Announcements/Communications and Avant-Garde/Innovative.

Two other campaigns received two Grand Prize Awards each: Lockheed Martin’s “The Field Trip to Mars” by McCann New York, in Activation & Engagement and Outdoor/Out of Home Marketing; and Sony Interactive Entertainment/Gravity Daze 2’s “Gravity Cat” by Hakuhodo Tokyo, in Branded Entertainment and Film—Cinema/Online/TV.

See the “Gravity Cat” work here:

John Lewis’ “Buster the Boxer” spot by adam&eveDDB London also won a Grand Prize Award in Film—Cinema/Online/TV.

The other Grand Prize Award winner of the night was Amnesty International’s “The Refugee Nation” by Ogilvy & Mather New York. That campaign won Best of Show at The One Show last week.

Finally, BBDO was named network of the year.

Tim Nudd

@nudd

Tim Nudd is a former creative editor of Adweek.