Special NZ awarded prestigious Platinum Award by New York Festivals AME Awards for highly acclaimed MND “David’s Unusables” campaign

September 16 2022, 6:00 am | BY Lynchy | No Comments
Special NZ awarded prestigious Platinum Award by New York Festivals AME Awards for highly acclaimed MND “David’s Unusables” campaign

Special New Zealand has been awarded the prestigious Platinum Award by the New York Festivals AME Awards for its highly acclaimed “David’s Unusables” campaign on behalf of Motor Neurone Disease New Zealand.

 

Bringing home the only Platinum title for the Asia-Pacific region, the work by Special also attracted two Gold award wins. These accolades recognise the campaign for Best Use of Discipline across two categories – Creative Use of Technology (Gold) and Media Partnerships (Platinum and Gold). The recognition follows recent One Show ‘Best of Discipline’ Gold Pencil and Cannes Gold Lion wins.

David’s Unusables showcased the impact of Motor Neuron Disease on New Zealander David Seymour who is living with the effects of MND. The little understood disease causes the muscles that enable movement, speech, and the ability to swallow and breathe to deteriorate and eventually stop working.

David’s story inspired Special’s campaign, which hijacked Trade Me to sell the everyday items that he no longer has the ability to use, to raise vital funds and awareness for MND NZ.

“Motor Neurone Disease is brutal and absolutely heart breaking. We want to thank David Seymour again for his bravery in letting us tell his story to raise much needed awareness. It’s a cause very close to our heart at Special,” says Founder & CEO Tony Bradbourne.

“It’s fantastic to see that David’s Unusables has been recognised by our peers around the world for its achievement in raising awareness of the nature of Motor Neurone Disease amongst a huge proportion of New Zealanders. Congratulations to all of the winners and thanks to the wonderful judges for volunteering their time.” Says Rory Gallery, Chief Strategy Officer of Special New Zealand

With a jury of more than 150 industry leaders across strategy and creativity from five regions around the globe, the AME Awards honour the very best in advertising and marketing innovation and effectiveness.