TED Celebrates Human Emotion in Advertising, Names Winners of Fourth Annual Ads Worth Spreading Initiative

NEW YORK, March 14, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- TED, the non-profit dedicated to Ideas Worth Spreading, whose 18-minute TED Talk videos have reached nearly two billion views, today celebrates content in advertising, announcing the 10 winners of its fourth annual Ads Worth Spreading initiative.

Ads Worth Spreading recognizes and rewards innovation, ingenuity and intelligence in advertising. The ten spots selected this year celebrate the power of an idea to form a connection with an audience – one so strong they are compelled to share it with others. In particular, TED looked for  "brand bravery" this year, rewarding the agencies and clients that nurture creative ideas to craft brilliant campaigns and embody the "adthropology" of our culture, mirroring the year's memes and trends.

Winners include a heartwarming portrayal of friendship from Guinness, a powerful cautionary tale from the New Zealand Transport Authority, and a playful spot from Honda that takes a delightful hands-on approach to celebrating the achievements of its engineers.

TED's 2013/14 Ads Worth Spreading are:

• A Boy and His Atom
  Brand: IBM
  Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, New York
• Camera Shy
  Brand: Dove
  Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, UK
• Click Baby
  Brand: Adobe
  Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, US  
• Hands
  Brand: Honda
  Agency: Widen + Kennedy, London
• Let's Save Africa
  Brand: Norwegian Students' and Academics' International Assistance Fund
  Agency: iKind Productions
• Mistakes
  Brand: New Zealand Transport Authority
  Agency: Clemenger BBDO New Zealand
• Safety Dance
  Brand: Virgin Air
  Agency: Virgin Produced
• Saroo Briefly: Homeward Bound
  Brand: Google Earth
  Agency: Good Rebel Films
• Thank You Mom | Pick Them Back Up
  Brand: P & G
  Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland
• Wheelchair Basketball
  Brand: Guinness
  Agency: BBDO, New York

"With thousands of brand-based ideas competing for audiences' attention, human attention is more valued than ever," said Ronda Carnegie, Head of Global Partnerships at TED.  "Much like the best TED Talks, this year's Ads Worth Spreading enrich lives rather than disrupt them. They present moments of contagious emotion, make us laugh, inspire us – and most important, the more they're shared, the more they can change people's thinking."

Brand bravery features in all of the winning ads, with each falling into one or more of five categories: Storytelling, Social Good, Cultural Compass, Creative Wonder, and Learning. TED tapped five teams comprised of one renowned TED speaker paired with one rising star from the advertising industry to seek out work in each category. TED's 20 Ads Worth Spreading Advocates – industry leaders in advertising, production, curation and film – also made suggestions and nominations across all categories.

This year, as an added component, YouTube also featured the most popular videos based on the algorithm behind their YouTube Ads Leaderboard, which publishes the most watched and shared ads on YouTube each month.

Winners were vetted by industry experts and curated by an internal TED team led by TED Curator Chris Anderson. Principle support for Ads Worth Spreading is provided by YouTube, whose Ads Worth Spreading industry supporters include: AICP, 4A's, IAB, IAA, and Art Directors Club. The winning work will be showcased at next week's TED2014 and TEDActive conferences as well as on TED.com and YouTube.

This year's winning spots can be viewed here: http://www.ted.com/watch/ads-worth-spreading

About TED

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California almost 30 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The two annual TED Conferences invite the world's leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes or less. Many of these talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Sal Khan and Daniel Kahneman.

The annual TED Conference takes place each spring along with the TEDActive simulcast event. The annual TEDGlobal conference will be held this October in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. TED's media initiatives include TED.com, where new TED Talks are posted daily; the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as translations from volunteers worldwide; the educational initiative TED-Ed, and TEDBooks, short e-books on powerful ideas. TED has established the annual TED Prize, where exceptional individuals with a wish to change the world get help translating their wishes into action; TEDx, which supports individuals or groups in hosting local, self-organized TED-style events around the world, and the TED Fellows program, helping world-changing innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.

Follow TED on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TEDNews, or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TED.

Contact: Khalid El Khatib
[email protected]; 646.493.1254

SOURCE TED