Ad of the Week – Sport Changes Lives

by Stratton Craig

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An example of perfectly executed copy that’s caught our eye this week is the print campaign for the Sported charity by Draftfcb.
It was inspired by the events of last summer – both the Olympics and the civil unrest across the UK. Sported helps young people to escape street culture and violence with alternative sporting activities. Draftfbc has built a clever poster/outdoor awareness campaign, which has also run in the Telegraph and Sunday Times.
The theme is that ‘sport changes lives’, yet if you look closely, the effectiveness of the ads stems from the fact that the copy on both sides is identical. On one side, the text tells the story of a youth in trouble with the law. Alongside it, that exact same description applies to a successful sportsperson.
The campaign recently won the agency an MAA Best Award for ‘Best Writing’, and rightly so. The realisation that the same copy can work in two different ways is always an exciting lightbulb moment. Alongside the copywriter’s careful wording, the art direction of the piece represents the clear division between the two life choices. It’s also unusual to see (relatively) long poster copy used to such great effect, especially in an outdoor setting where the audience’s reading time is often limited.
As always, if you’ve seen an ad with inspired copywriting and a solid tone of voice, we’d love to hear about it! Drop us a line or tweet the link to us @strattoncraig with a short note on why you like it.

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