The Story Behind the 2025 Reed Award 🏆

Written by Dave Huguenel, Managing Director

I love it when my ads win awards. Short of winning a campaign it’s one of the coolest parts of what I do for a living. My love for these awards has nothing to do with affirmation or ego though, no I love them because, for a brief moment, I get to relive the experience and the story behind how the ad was created. And I’m happy to say that one of my ads that won a Reed award recently has a story behind it that I’ll cherish for a very long time and I’m excited to share it with you today.

Last year I was tasked with creating ads to help elect legislative candidates in Colorado. The mission I was given was to produce ads that were unique and maybe even bordered on absurd. One of the things we also knew going into the elections was that Democrats planned to dust off their typical playbook which was calling their Republican opponents extremists and making them look out of touch. So the ad concept I came up with was to use a baby doll with a drawstring to mock the repetitive nature of the Democrat talking points.

Now finding a baby doll with a drawstring in 2024 is easier said than done. It required me to spend a day calling thrift and antique stores in my hometown. Then once I found a store that sold old baby dolls I had to walk in (I’m a 39-year-old man) and tell the owner I was the guy that called and I wanted to look at his dolls.

After some concerned looks from the store owner I was able to find the correct doll and I was even pleased to see that when the string was pulled the doll shook its hand in a weird and funny way.

But the story doesn’t end there. I needed to figure out how to shoot the ad itself. After some thinking (and some light begging of my wonderful wife) I decided the best thing to do would be to film my daughter playing with the doll in her room.

When I told my four-year-old daughter that she would be helping me by acting in a commercial she was really excited. She took special care to choose her own outfit and even picked out her own jewelry to wear. When it came time to shoot she was a real trooper, she sat patiently as we set up shots and she listened to every direction we gave her.

Here’s my favorite part of the story behind this ad.

We produced the ad and it ran with great effect, playing a major part of our ad campaign in Colorado that led to one of their most successful legislative cycles in a decade. The candidate we were supporting won and the rest, as they say, is history. So yeah, it felt really cool to win another award and I look forward to producing more ads like this in the future.

Without further ado, here’s the ad with the best actress I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with. ⬇️