The Creative Moment New Year Honours List 2026

HONOUR: Services to women's safety

Black and blue plaques honour the memories of women killed in the home

Back in March last year, The Guardian wrote a piece about the Killed Women Count, naming 50 women who had already been murdered in 2024 at the hands of violent men.

In the case of domestic homicides, the vast majority of victims are women. And their murderers, usually partners or ex-partners, had a history of violence and coercive control.

Supported and safeguarded by the incredible Killed Women team, seven families bravely stepped forward to tell their stories.  The Guardian became the first to cover the story, and within the first 24 hours, the campaign was covered by: The Mirror, Channel 5, ITV News, Glamour, LBC, Good Morning Britain, and Jess Phillips MP’s IG Story, Yahoo News, MSN, Hits Radio.

The plaques are now being taken across the country to apply pressure to local MPs, and push for the change that must happen. A petition will be created once the committee reopens, to get this issue at the top of the Government’s agenda. 

Credit to Earnies for being the creative force behind this campaign.

Read the whole story here.

Honour: Services to a vulnerable community

CALM has consistently and persistently campaigned to raise awareness of teen suicide and this campaign hit hard.

Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), the suicide prevention charity on a mission to help people end their misery, not their lives, is launching the second phase of its ‘Missed Birthdays’ campaign.

The campaign, made possible by funding from the Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation (IFCF), marks the next instalment of creative agency adam&eveDDB’s ongoing work with CALM, in partnership with ITV and the7Stars. Following on from an initial activation at Westfield London in 2024, the second burst of the campaign centres around one film, a true story of youth suicide.

‘Missed Birthdays’ seeks to turn the tragic increase and magnitude of youth suicide into an unignorable and nationwide talking point.

In the UK, 6,929 15-24-year-olds have been lost to suicide between 2012 and 2022.

Despite this sobering statistic, youth suicide is seldom spoken about. Only 15% of parents and carers have spoken about mental health and suicide with loved ones, despite 2 in 5 young people admitting to experiencing a mental health crisis or suicidal thoughts.

Credit to CALM, adam&eveDDB and Hope&Glory for creating work not to be ignored.

Read the whole story here.

HONOUR: Recognition of rarely recognised cultural insight

Specsavers' Auntie Army against glaucoma

Highlighted by Burson's Greg Double in his regular Stunt Watch column, this work garnered much attention, and rightly so.

"Led by Loose Women’s Brenda Edwards, ‘The Auntie Army’ calls on self-appointed aunties to nudge loved ones into booking tests before glaucoma – which is often symptomless – causes irreversible damage. People of African-Caribbean heritage face up to four times the risk of developing the condition and may experience it earlier in life.

Created by Golin, the campaign brought to everybody's attention not only the issues with eyesight in this community, but also provided an education on the importance of 'aunties' in the African-Caribbean community.

Read the full story here.

Honour: Services to support mental health

Barnardos and BBH Dublin release heartbreaking film as part of 'Because childhood lasts a lifetime' campaign

Children’s charity Barnardos has released a thought-provoking film, created by BBH Dublin, to highlight the challenges some children in Ireland face.

Barnardos know that understanding a child’s issues takes time and work. It’s not a quick fix.

This forms the basis of the new film, which follows a young boy recounting a childhood birthday. It begins with him telling a story of a perfect day, surrounded by friends, family, presents and a huge cake topped with candles. The story is then retold again and again. With each blow of the candle, more of the facade is chipped away to get to the truth; that his birthdays weren’t very special. The story ends with the boy, now in his teens, opening up about his real childhood experience to a Barnardos keyworker leading up to the enduring line ‘Because childhood lasts a lifetime’.

BBH Dublin worked closely with Barnardos to capture the reality of the healing process on film, and how it’s an ongoing journey that requires continued support.

Read the whole story here.

Honour: Recognition and remembrance of significant events

Canal de Historia uses Holocaust tattoo imagery to link past and present

Tattoos have featured in several poignant adverts, but the Spanish TV channel, Canal de Historia’s use of Holocaust tattoo images in its recent campaign is among the most poignant.

January 2025 marked 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenhau, the largest Nazi concentration camp, and numerous memorial events were held to honour the victims and survivors of the Nazi atrocities.

Spain’s History TV channel (Canal de Historia) continues to commemorate the Holocaust throughout the year, with TV and print ads by Dentsu Creative Iberia, showing a concerning link between the past and the present.

The visuals make a link between the serial numbers tattooed on the arms of Holocaust survivors from Auschwitz-Birkenhau through their juxtaposition with illustrations of present-day data relating to the resurgence of far-right mentalities and behaviours.

Read the whole story here.

Honour: Recognition of real representation

Burberry gets representation right, and it’s working

Burberry’s ‘It’s Always Burberry Weather: London in Love’ campaign stays true to the brand, British culture, and authentic representation, says Rich Miles, CEO, Diversity Standards Collective.

It’s a beautifully simple way to represent the East Asian community, which is wildly underrepresented. The use of South Korean actor Son Suk-ku is intertwined naturally with a message about having love for others, a love of fashion and a love of a full English. 

Diverse representation at its simplest and finest.

The East Asian community isn’t often represented in the campaigns we get through our Targeted Community Research Platform, so it was exciting to see a character from that community in a lead role centred around a theme of ‘Britishness’. Our Diverse Collective, who review the campaigns, have been crying out for less sensationalised representation and yearning to see more everyday narratives depicted in our ads, and this ad seems to do just that.

Credit to Lane & Associates and director David Lane.

Read the whole story here.

Honour: Recognition of the impact of knife crime

Saatchi & Saatchi’s knife crime campaign makes powerful use of technology

StreetDoctors, a national charity dedicated to empowering young people affected by violence, has launched a campaign that vividly dispels knife crime myths.

‘The Fatal Question’ dismantles the dangerous myth that there are "safe places" to stab someone through an interactive installation and a national film rollout. The campaign shows the stark reality that a single stab wound, anywhere on the body, can be fatal.

The campaign, developed in collaboration with Saatchi & Saatchi and directed by Jonathan Kneebone of Glue Society, centres on real-life stories of individuals who lost their lives to single-stab wounds, highlighting the fragility of the human body and the irreversible consequences of knife violence.

This was an instantly vivid, disquieting and innovative way to highlight an important issue.

Read the whole story here.

HONOUR: Services to public health

Joe Wicks and 4creative confront ultra-processed food with satire

Nutrition. 

Not a subject everybody gets excited about, yet the impact of UPF's (ultra-processed food) is not only affecting millions of people, including our children, but is escalating—fast.

Like him or loathe him, Joe Wicks has always championed healthy eating and this ad, created in partnership with 4Creative for Channel 4, tackles a serious issue with killer creative.

Our health, especially children's health, is not to be underestimated, as we see the impact of food on the mental, physical and emotional health of our younger generations.

Read the whole story here.

Honour: Recognition and support for the challenges of parenting

The Trial: Lingokids addresses parents’ complex relationship with children’s screentime

A mock trial featuring unscripted contributions from parents discussing their children’s use of technology is the concept behind Lingokids’ nuanced advert.

The US campaign, created with Piel Creative Studio, addresses the often-overlooked issue of parental guilt surrounding children's screen time.

From the outset, Creative Moment reckons viewers should be aware that Lingokids is an educational language learning app, so obviously, there’s a vested interest in viewers not outright dismissing technology in children’s lives. That said, the work does tastefully touch on the complex issues many face.

The film enlists 11 real parents who unknowingly put their feelings of guilt on trial, sharing their unscripted thoughts and doubts about their parenting styles and approach to screen time.

A relentlessly challenging subject matter for most families, rarely brought to the fore, so this was a welcome campaign and conversation starter as we all continue to work towards the health of the next generation.

Read the whole story here.

Honour: Services to the safety of women and children

Hijinks creates powerful OOH campaign for Women’s Aid

This campaign, running near London’s Central Family Court, highlights the risks to children posed by the family justice system with the line ‘Hear the Children or Grieve Them’.

Full-service creative agency Hijinks has developed a powerful new campaign for domestic abuse charity Women’s Aid, shining a spotlight on the dangers of a ‘pro-contact’ culture in the family justice system and statutory services, which often prioritise parental contact over child safety, even when children disclose abuse.

Nearly a decade after Women’s Aid exposed the deaths of 19 children due to failings in the family justice system and statutory services, a further 19 children have since been killed in preventable circumstances by perpetrators of domestic abuse. 67 children have been killed by a parent who was also a perpetrator of domestic abuse, in circumstances relating to child contact, over the last 30 years.

Women’s Aid is calling for urgent change — the need for the family justice system to recognise diverse children’s experiences of domestic abuse, including coercive control, and to centre children’s voices in child contact cases.

Read the whole story here.

Honour: Using art for a fairer society

UK for UNHCR's 'Fragments Of Hope' embodies the grace of human resilience and the capacity to rebuild

The unique 'Fragments of Hope' tea set reminds us that, while the challenges of forced displacement should not be underestimated, piece by piece, lives can be rebuilt.

Creative PR agency The Romans and UK for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency’s national charity for the UK, launched a new earned-first campaign for Refugee Week, June 2025. It brings to life the experiences of six refugee storytellers from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Ukraine, Sudan and Syria with unique artwork as a celebration of resilience.

'Fragments of Hope' represents people who have rebuilt their lives in the UK after being forced to flee conflict and persecution, created in collaboration with renowned sculptor and artist Billie Bond.

There are now more than 122 million people displaced by conflict and persecution worldwide. Behind every number is a personal journey of survival and hope. In honour of this, UK for UNHCR’s latest campaign centres around a unique Kintsugi tea set that reflects the individual stories.

Credit to The Romans for the beautiful concept.

Read the whole story here.

Honour: Recognition of service to a minority community

Asda joins a legion of brands truly listening to its community

George at Asda has unveiled a 28-piece adaptive clothing collection for adults with specific medical needs, echoing the efforts of a spate of brands paying attention to the customers they serve.

In tribute to the late breast cancer campaigner Nicky Newman, the range marks a significant expansion of Asda’s adaptive clothing initiative, making it the first UK supermarket to offer such options for both children and adults.

Inspired by Newman’s personal experiences and her 2023 call to action on Instagram, the collection addresses the challenges faced by individuals undergoing medical treatment.

After struggling with the indignity of changing into hospital gowns for scans and port access during chemotherapy, Newman sought to create affordable, comfortable clothing that maintained dignity. Asda, which broke ground in 2023 with adaptive children's wear for conditions like autism, collaborated closely with Nicky and Alex to fulfil her vision.

Read the whole story here.