GIANT SPOON AND THEIR AUTHENTIC APPROACH TO ADVERTISING

Being a student at the UO SOJC has time and time again emphasized and encouraged brand responsibility. In creative strategy, the first course within the ad school, the prompt of our main project to answer was “what is brand responsibility?” In my green brand strategy class as well as a course with the NAME of brand responsibility, (both taught by the lovely Kim Sheehan) we focused on many case studies and would really break down what it means for a brand to be responsible. As you can imagine it is pretty difficult to define what makes a brand responsible, but one of the main reoccurring themes and necessities to brand responsibility is whether or not the brand is authentic.

BEING AUTHENTIC…

Being authentic in terms of creating and maintaining a brand image means to operate in terms of a brand’s core values and mission statement. What I learned is that many brands deceive their potential consumers by aligning themselves with charitable causes that don’t align with their brand identity. This makes an authentic brand all the more satisfying

GIANT SPOON… A LOW DOWN

Giant Spoon is a unique advertising agency in that it is based mostly on strategy with its other main focuses being culture and media. It is also unusual in that the majority of their employees are under the age of 35. Giant Spoon recruiter, Gregg Louis credits the young age of their employees for their originality and success on the campaigns they work on.

AUTHENTICITY AT GIANT SPOON…

What struck me as Gregg Louis talked about the work Giant Spoon extracts and highlights the authenticity of the brands they work with. For example, Giant Spoon proposed to GE a segment on Jimmy Fallon called “Fallonventions” where young kids show off inventions they created and in turn receive money towards their education. This is a genius way to naturally and authentically advertise a brand while also being transparent in their charitable efforts.

I found this to be the case in all of the client work done by Giant Spoon, whether it be for HP printers and highlighting the anti-hacking software or the experiential ad experience GS has done for HBO shows Westworld and Game of Thrones at SXSW. Whether it be a standard ad campaign or a full-blown fantasy experiential ad world,  Giant Spoon is setting the standard for authenticity high.

Rachel Bonner

5.14.19