YOUNG GUNS QUIT IN STYLE WITH DROGA5

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cock-gallery.jpgGlow in the dark QIS.jpgPoisonous beries QIS.jpgThis week sees the launch of the International YoungGuns Award’s call-for-entries Quit in Style campaign – a collaboration between Droga5 and a group of filmmakers and graphic artists from around the world.

Thesite is an extension of an idea from Droga5 to create a new categoryfor this year’s YG Awards, called “Craft in Quitting”, which rewardsyoung creatives’ skill and creativity in navigating the choppy watersof work-placements and freelance gigs that invariably make up the earlyyears of a creative career in advertising.

It is the firstadvertising award dedicated solely to rewarding the colourful world ofUser Generated Content, an area that sits at the forefront of theindustry’s future yet is largely ignored on the global awards circuit.The category requires creatives to submit work they’ve createdspecifically around the ‘Quit in Style’ theme, and is open to anyonewith an axe to grind against their employers – regardless of whetherthey work in advertising.

The idea fittingly came from Droga5’syoungest team, Ben Smith and Neil McGuirk, in response to a brief fromYGAward co-founder Kristian Barnes to develop a call-for-entriescampaign that would be even more specific to young creatives:

“Overthe last 7 years, YGAward has grown massively and now competes incredibility and scale of entries with a lot of the more establishedshows. We are very conscious of wanting to keep the spirit and tone ofthe show true to the original premise, regardless of how wide it nowreaches, and asked the guys at Droga5 to think of a non-advertising wayof pushing the show’s iconoclastic mantra further. Essentially theycame back with a product idea, which in our case is the show itself,and the idea for the site and campaign grew naturally from there.”

The “Quit in Style” campaign features a site, www.quitinstyle.comthat hosts initial content created by directors in London, LA, New Yorkand Sydney. This body of work will grow as other young creatives uploadtheir ideas to the site.

The project was overseen and directed byDroga5 Sydney’s Creative Heads, Matty Burton and Cameron Blackley, whohave designed the campaign as a launchpad for young creatives anddirectors to host their own content, which will ultimately be judgedwithin the newly created “Craft in Quitting” category and will go on towin a specially made Matt Black Bullet at this year’s YGAward.

AsMatty Burton explains, although the tone of the campaign is outrageous,the idea behind it is firmly based in reality: “Some of us are stillyoung enough to remember the lashing we got as juniors coming upthrough the business. It’s a bit of a rites of passage thing, like armyboot camp, but with less sleep and more beatings! Quit in Style isdesigned to become a sort of secret ‘Fight Club’ for junior creatives,where they can meet to compare war stories and more importantly ideasof getting one over on their slave master CDs before they move on tothe next challenge. It’s basically a tool-box for the underdogs.”

CameronBlackley thinks the content they’ve pulled together will grow fast onceyoung creatives start to get involved: “We’ve created over 25 filmsthanks to collaborating with directors from as far away as HungryMan inNew York and greatguns in Los Angeles but I think it’s just thebeginning. Juniors are nothing if not crafty, and when they realisethey can become infamous as well as win a specially made Matt BlackBullet through this thing, I reckon they won’t need too muchencouragement to pull out the camcorder.”

The YGAward call-to-entries campaign includes web, print, poster & DM.

Entries to the 2008 YGAward close on Friday October 17 2008. Thisyear’s Jury Chairman is the outgoing JWT Worldwide CD Craig Davis.Winners and finalists will be announced on Monday 8 December 2008.

View the video

CREDITS

AGENCY: DROGA5: Matty Burton, Cameron Blackley, Ben Smith & Neil McGuirk, Southpaw

PRINT: Toko Design (toko.nu)

FILM: Hungry Man (New York); greatguns (Los Angeles); Arithmetic, 8 Commercials, Guillotine (Sydney)

WEB: The Farm (Sydney)