The Spot: Beauty and the Beast

IDEA: DDB in London has worked for years with Changing Faces, a U.K. charity that assists people with disfigurements. Recently, the agency noted a disturbing phenomenon: In films, people with facial disfigurements are almost always bad guys. "Whenever you see an unusual looking face on the big screen, you automatically assume something nasty is going to happen," said DDB creative director Chris Lapham. This seemed like a good insight, particularly for a cinema spot. The agency hired Downton Abbey actress Michelle Dockery, burn victim Leo Gormley and director Jim Weedon to shoot an ad that would make the audience rethink its kneejerk assumptions about people with disfigurements.