Creative Corner: Living memorials, Mikel chooses Pixel and Sephora's spicy lip gloss

British Heart Foundation launches memorials for the living

We’re conditioned to see benches in parks and expect memorials for those who have passed: a quiet, sombre marker for someone lost. 

British Heart Foundation and Saatchi & Saatchi have taken that visual shorthand, and flipped it in a simple execution which centres survivors and its iconic red hue.

To mark the charity's 65th anniversary, they’ve installed 65 striking red benches across the UK. 

Instead of the usual memorial inscriptions, the gold plaques honour survivors of heart conditions who are still with us thanks to the charity’s research. 

Lead ambassador and presenter Emma Willis, who recently discovered she’d lived with a hole in her heart for 48 years, is among those sharing their stories via QR codes on the benches that lead to intimate, spatial audio conversations between survivors and their loved ones.

It isn't necessarily a groundbreaking execution, but it doesn’t need to be; its impact comes from its simplicity. By seeding these case studies directly into the community, the campaign centres the real people at the core of the charity’s impact. It’s a masterclass in integrated storytelling; they’ve used these physical benches as a permanent storytelling mechanic to tell a cohesive story across every channel with a tonne of striking assets in the spotlight. The survivors quite literally speak for themselves.

Mikel chooses Pixel

I’ll caveat first that I’m not an avid football fan. But, being born into a family of Blues supporters has imbued some kind of support by osmosis, I suppose, so naturally my interest was piqued when I saw Chelsea legend John Obi Mikel poking fun at the Manchester United transfer that never was, for Google Pixel.

You don't need to be a regular at Stamford Bridge to appreciate the tactical wit here. 

Google Pixel has resurrected one of the most infamous transfer sagas in football history: the 2004 moment when Mikel was famously pictured in a United shirt, seemingly completing a transfer, before ultimately signing for Chelsea. Twenty years later, they’ve put him back in the red kit just to have him "switch" again—this time to the Pixel 10, with a load of fan easter eggs scripted in between.

Does it land if you aren't a football obsessive? I’d say so. 

It pounds the drum of a simple, functional phrase: "It’s never too late to switch." Timing is everything in comms, and launching this during the January Transfer Window, which is a period already synonymous with new habits and lifestyle switch-ups, makes the landing easy. 

Brand ambassadors always work best when they’re part of the joke.

Sephora and Tabasco bring tingle together

In a landscape suffocated by "unexpected" brand partnerships, this one might seem fitting for a bit of a gimmick at first. Between the novelty-scented candles, supermarket-branded apparel, and the endless stream of designer bags built specifically to hold pastries, condiments, and everything in between, it’s tired. But Sephora and Tabasco’s new lipgloss launch offers a genuine synergy of the senses that makes the partnership work just right.

Together, they’ve launched a limited-edition "Glossed" lip gloss packaged in those iconic, tiny red bottles.

What I like about this is that it isn’t just playing on Tabasco’s cultural status as a handbag must-have (a la Maldon Sea Salt). If you’ve ever used a lip plumper, you know that a specific, tingle, causing temporary swelling and blood flow to your lips, means it is working; a "no pain, no gain" phenomenon born in the late 90s that has seen a massive revival in recent years thanks to social media. Admittedly, not particularly pleasant but perfectly safe if it’s your thing.

In fact, this collaboration brings the category full circle. The first-ever plumping gloss was founded in 1999 by Cristina Bartolucci and Laura DeLuisa, who actually found their inspiration in a spice cabinet to create that signature sensation. 

By aligning the feeling of a lip plumper with the literal heat of a chilli, the partnership feels earned rather than forced. 

It’s as simple as that- and in a world of over-engineered collabs, that kind of logical friction is exactly what makes it stand out.