2022 Winners & Shortlists

Cultural / Context information for the jury

The United Arab Emirates (and Middle Eastern region) has a fossil-fuel-based economy and ranks amongst the top 20 countries in terms of fuel usage and consumption. And since climate change is destroying our planet and leading to a massive increase in occurrence and intensity of wildfires, we decided to use a classic Christmas symbol to drive a powerful message and spur a reaction from people. As a leader in sustainability, Mall of the Emirates is continuously looking for ways to reduce its impact on the environment. It’s reduced water usage, energy consumption and increased recycling rates over the years so creating an activation like this one was a given for the brand.

Write a short summary of what happens in the digital or ambient execution or campaign.

To get people to care about wildfires and climate change, we subverted one of the season’s most traditional ceremonies and burnt the one tree people love to see: the Christmas Tree. During our traditional tree lighting ceremony, Mall of the Emirates stunned mall visitors with a digital carbon-neutral tree, which lit beautifully and, all of a sudden, burnt to ashes. The lighting ceremony was treated like a show that used storytelling, 4D audio and a large-scale, special-built, carbon-neutral tree to deliver a powerful message.