Campaign Brief Creative Circle: What’s hot in September?
Each month Campaign Brief invites top creatives to choose one standout piece of Australian work created outside their own agency. It’s a space for celebrating the craft, fresh thinking and homegrown creativity that continues to raise the bar across the industry.
September 2025’s edition features Jenny Mak, jnr.; Cam Blackley, Bureau of Everything; Becky Morriss, DDB Melbourne; Grant Rutherford, East of Everything; Beth O’Brien, Princess; and Jess Wheeler, SICKDOGWOLFMAN.
Jenny Mak, jnr.
A telco ad about cyber security starring Steve Buscemi as a washed-up space villain? On paper, it’s madness. But that’s exactly why it works. It breaks the category. Instead of fear-mongering or tech jargon, it gives us a fully committed, cinematic piss-take without losing the product message.
Visually, it’s crafted to perfection. Every prop, every beat, every line – tight. Buscemi’s delivery is just the right kind of ridiculous. And yet the takeaway lands: Telstra blocks millions of scams daily. That’s it. One clear message, smuggled inside something people actually want to watch.
It’s brave, hilarious, and brilliantly single-minded. The envy for this one is real.
Client: Telstra. Agencies: Bear Meets Eagle On Fire with +61. Director: Randy Krallman. Production Company: Smuggler.
Cam Blackley, Bureau of Everything
I can’t imagine I’m the only person picking Telstra ‘Scammogeddon’ (I made that title up) but it’s the security ad campaign, you know the one? Puts most other campaigns on air to shame right now. No warm hugs and touchy feely stuff that’s the category yawn norm, just pure entertainment that whilst it isn’t perfect, it also isn’t far off. I bet it has tongues wagging in living rooms everywhere. And the billboards are brutally classy too.
Becky Morriss, DDB Melbourne
Kerfuffle’s ‘Get Your Pickle On’ spot for Picklebet is the kind of betting ad you can’t look away from. There’s no footy legend screaming odds at you, no slow-mo game highlights – just pure chaos, served with a wink and a Jock Jam worthy soundtrack. It’s loud, surreal, a bit unhinged… and that’s exactly why you can’t look away. You’re not being sold on a promo, you’re being dragged into Picklebet’s bizarre little universe where anything goes.
What works is that it isn’t flogging punters or promos, it’s selling an attitude. It says, this is who we are. Betting as a vibe, not a sales pitch. In a category where most betting ads blur into each other, this one sticks out like a sore thumb, in the best possible way. Picklebet has gone all-in on personality. You might not even care about betting, but you’ll definitely remember the pickle … and the bloke who swallows it whole. GULP.
Client: Picklebet. Agency: Kerfuffle. Director: Jesse James McElroy. Production Company: Sweetshop
Grant Rutherford, East of Everything
My pick (along with probably everyone else’s) is the wonderfully weird but somehow plausible campaign for Telstra. No, not the bandy-legged-whistling-man but the Network Security Campaign. I first saw it was on free to air (yes, it’s a thing) and I literally laughed out loud. “Craig”. So Lo-fi but somehow High-IQ, it’s a campaign that keeps on giving. While I applaud the longer films, the real gold is in the shorter social ones. They slapped my scroll-finger into submission – no small feat in this age of doomscrolling. Those one-joke, one-hit-wonders are pure meme magic. And Steve Buscemi? Evil, delightful, and exactly what I didn’t know I needed.
Beth O’Brien, Princess
Yessiree – THIS is how you do a cyber-security ad. The new spot from Bear Meets Eagle on Fire for Telstra unleashed an intergalactic fever dream of Buscemi deadpan-ness. It landed straight in my prefrontal cortex and I thank you. I always love it when absurdist comedy is employed to illustrate serious technical stuff. For me, it shows confidence and a tight client/agency relationship.
Jess Wheeler, SICKDOGWOLFMAN
Telstra and BMEOF have been making some of the biggest and boldest work in the country all year, but even the way they handle the more unassuming briefs is impressive. I’ve always held the belief that every brief is an opportunity, and everything should be brand, and this is the perfect example.
Creating some social content to announce a new app with retail offers could have easily not been this – and that’s why I love it. The balance of volume and craft, much like the Better Network work, is untouchable. There’s 5 minutes of Colin. All well written, all thoughtfully considered, all put together with care and consideration.
It’s a bloody weird thing to have to say, but you can feel that people made it. And cared about it. And sweat over the details. And convinced a client to put nipple rings on a cuckoo bird.
Anyway, there’s not a lot of work that makes me jealous anymore, but when it does it often comes out of this partnership. Here’s to holding the bar high as those around us race to the bottom.
Client: Telstra. Agencies: +61 with Bear Meets Eagle On Fire. Director: Laurie Rowan. Production Company: Nexus Studio
View previous editions of Creative Circle below: