Burger King’s “Moldy Whopper” scored three Grand Prix honors--in the Film, Print and PR competitions--at the Epica Awards. INGO Stockholm, DAVID Miami and Publicis were behind the campaign which heralds Burger King’s decision to eliminate artificial colors, flavors and preservatives from its Whopper. The signature campaign commercial shows an appetizing burger being assembled and then left to rot for several weeks, decomposing via time lapse photography until it’s a mass of a mess with a layer of thick green mold, reflecting “The Beauty of No Artificial Preservatives.”

Other Grand Prix winners in this year’s Epica Awards--billed as the only worldwide creative award judged by journalists from the marketing, design and advertising press, as well as specialist reporters in fields ranging from automotive to VR--were:

• RESPONSIBILITY: “Through Your Eyes”, INCUCAI x Sony Music, Wunderman Thompson Buenos Aires (Special Mention for “The Last Present”, Canary Islands govt., Mientrastanto, Spain)
• DESIGN: “Heinz Ketchup Puzzle”, Rethink, Canada
• DIGITAL: “Swipe Night”, Tinder, 72andSunny Los Angeles

Responsibility Grand Prix winner “Through Your Eyes” topped the field of cause-related work. The music video came from Sony Music, musician Dante Apinetta and organ donation charity NGO INCUCAI. The video appeared misty until users pointed their device’s camera at another person’s eyes, when the picture became clear. The clip encouraged cornea donations.

Design Grand Prix winner “Heinz Ketchup Bottle” was a head-scratching,  entirely red jigsaw puzzle that promised to keep everyone occupied during lockdown – and also generated healthy dollops of social and traditional media coverage.

Digital Grand Prix winner “Swipe Night” reignited interest in the Tinder app by transforming it into a complex multi-player adventure game that entertained users and brought like-minded people together.

Special honors included Wunderman Thompson being named Epica Network of the Year with INGO Stockholm, DAVID Miami and Publicis earning Agency of the Year distinction.

Epica editorial director and jury moderator Mark Tungate said, “This year the accent was clearly on innovation, as many of the big winners stood out with attention-grabbing new spins on existing media platforms. In an extraordinary period, agencies worked harder than ever before to prove that a historic crisis (the pandemic) can’t put a brake on creativity.”

This year Epica received 1980 entries from 59 countries. This was lower than previous years but higher than expected given the circumstances. The highest number of entries came from Russia, followed by Germany. In terms of networks, Wunderman Thompson and BBDO were particularly well represented.

United States topped country rankings with 17 awarded projects including 4 Grand Prix and 8 Golds, followed by Canada with 22 awarded projects including 1 Grand Prix and 5 Golds. 

For the full Epica results, click here.