Young Lions 2010

So this weekend I participated in the Young Lions competition. Basically its a competition of young people in the advertising industry who are under 28. Here is the gist of the contest, you are emailed a brief at 9am and have 24 hours to complete an ad. I joined the print category but there is also a web, media and film as well.

This year the ad was for the Parkinson Society of Canada. The ad was supposed to increase awareness of Parkinson's Disease and to give the viewer a better understanding of it. I did some research on Parkinson's while brainstorming creative ideas and I had no idea its symptoms were so complex. The most common symptoms are tremors, slowness, stiffness, impaired balance and rigidity of the muscles. Presently most people associate Parkinson's with Michael J. Fox and from seeing him in the media, think that its a disease that makes a person shake or have "tremors". That is not the only symptom of Parkinson's usually thats just a side effect of the medication. I can't even imagine having to spend every day fighting your own body, or being on edge about when a sudden symptom may occur.

I'm very proud of the creative that I produced. I won't post it up here until the judge is over in mid-April but I feel like its about the best ad I've made to date. I strongly recommend any young creative person in advertising to sign up for this contest, its very exciting and fun to be a part of.

The winners of the Young Lions win a trip to Cannes, France and the opportunity to represent Canada in the official Cannes Young Lions competition.

Wish me luck :)