Paul Swann’s One Show Diary Wrap-Up: “The Best Ideas Don’t Just Chase Culture, They Change It”

Paul Swann, Chief Creative Tinker at Thinkerbell, recently represented Australia on the global jury for the Cultural Driver category at The One Show 2025. Here, Swann shares exclusively with Campaign Brief what he learned from judging hundreds of entries from around the world—and why the best work today doesn’t just follow culture, it changes it.

This year’s One Show judging took place in the Dominican Republic. It’s a beautiful Caribbean Island known for its beaches, resorts and excellent golfing, its diverse terrain comprising rainforest, savannah and spectacular highlands. But I wouldn’t know anything about that because the category I judged (Cultural Driver) was all done online.

So rather than experiencing those rainforest, savannah and spectacular highlands I was in Redfern, finding fleeting moments between meetings to fulfil my judgely duties.

The judging process commenced back in January with an extremely thorough briefing from the crack team at The One Show HQ, and then we waited for the first batch of entries, which arrived a couple of weeks later. I entered the awards portal with bated breath, ready to immerse myself in the world’s finest work, only to be greeted by a measly 7 entries. Slightly disappointed, but also secretly a little relieved at the modest volume, I worked my way through the magnificent seven submissions and went about my day.

Of course I had been lulled into a false sense of security as in the subsequent weeks the entries came in thick and fast, hundreds at a time from all four corners of the world, funny ones, serious ones and heaps of sports related ones. I found myself thankful for the staggered submission approach which enabled me to mentally refresh between entry drops.

As mentioned earlier, the category I judged was Cultural Driver—focused on work that genuinely impacted the culture of the place or community it targeted. With the pace of culture accelerating, I think it’s an increasingly relevant space for our industry to understand and respond to, but it’s also tricky to judge. It requires an appreciation of the genuine cultural impact of the work, which can be challenging when it comes from places you know little about.

Any frequent awards judge develops a finely tuned radar for work that delivers real impact, and I found myself augmenting that radar with a bit of extra research for those entries that were in contention for the top honours.

A couple of noteworthy themes emerged. One was the presence of unashamedly brain rot-style activity—an example being the Nutter Butter social campaign out of the US. A lot of it didn’t make much sense and the ‘idea’ (in the more classical definition) was hard to pin down, but it worked its socks off and felt like a real reflection of the times.

Secondly, I found it interesting how brands not only acted quickly in response to events in culture, but how they genuinely committed to putting major resources behind those ideas—not just a social post or lone billboard, but significant time and budget going into amplifying often fleeting moments. A brilliant example being Heinz Mustard and DJ Mustard.

Finally it would appear that ‘purpose’ based work is well and truly alive and kicking. Ideas where brands sought to impact society in a positive way—from elections to immigration to encouraging physical activity—were prominent and made up a significant proportion of the shortlist.

Whilst I didn’t leave with a tan or a trophy photo by the beach, I did leave with a renewed sense that the best ideas don’t just chase culture—they change it. And if this year’s work is anything to go by, the race to stay relevant is only getting faster—and quite a bit weirder.

This year’s esteemed One Show global jury selected a total of 1,659 finalists from 49 countries.  The complete searchable list of finalists for The One Show 2025 is available here.

All finalists will win Gold, Silver, or Bronze Pencils or Merits, to be announced during Creative Week 2025 on May 15, and celebrated at The One Show 2025 awards ceremony on May 16 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York, where special awards such as Best of Show, Best of Disciplines, Agency of the Year, and more will be revealed.

Now in its 15th year, Creative Week (May 12-16, 2025) is a premier annual gathering for the advertising and design industries to come together and celebrate the creative excellence showcased in four of the club’s leading global awards shows, and discuss the latest creative trends and issues.