• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, April 4, 2018

State Street’s “Fearless Girl” and Sandy Hook Promises’ “Evan” keep raking in the international accolades, with both named as the best social responsibility campaigns of 2017 by the new Good Report. BBDO New York wins as the best agency for such efforts, and Amnesty International as the most socially responsible brand.

The report, a collaborative ranking between ACT Responsible and the Gunn Report, evaluated 1,045 campaigns produced by 680 agencies for this year’s list, with 850 different advertisers from some 80 countries. The two score campaigns by combining industry recognition with performance, measured by the Gunn Report, promotional effort behind the ads, and public voting organized by ACT Responsible. Forty campaigns made it to the final report, with 31 from nonprofits, and 9 from brands. 

“Fearless Girl,” created by McCann-Erickson for State Street Corp., came in first, followed by “Switch it off,” Ogilvy Germany’s gut-wrenching effort for Amnesty International; “Meet Graham,” Clemenger BBDO Melbourne’s work for the Transport Accident Commission; “Evan,” created by BBDO for Sandy Hook Promise, and “The First Braille Smartwatch,” from Serviceplan Germany on behalf of Dot. Inc.

BBDO New York is named the most successful agency creating work for good causes, followed by McCann New York; Ogilvy Berlin; Clemenger BBDO Melbourne in Australia, and Serviceplan München in Germany. The report also named the top agency networks for responsibility efforts, led by BBDO Worldwide, FCB Worldwide; McCann Worldgroup; Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide and Young & Rubicam Group.

Amnesty International is named as the most effective brand, followed by WWF; UNICEF; Red Cross and Greenpeace.

This is the report’s fifth year, but ACT Responsible has been collecting ads that most effectively communicate sustainability and social responsibility for 17 years. (The nonprofit group was formed in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York.)

The winning campaigns are scheduled to be exhibited in Cannes Lions’ 65^th international festival of creativity in June.