BBDO Canada and Performance Art were among the select few agencies to win a Yellow Pencil at the 2023 D&AD Awards on Thursday.

BBDO’s “Missing Matoaka” campaign won a pair of Yellow Pencils – one in the Radio & Audio category and one in Entertainment – along with two Graphite Pencils (equivalent to a Silver) in Digital and Radio & Audio, and a Wood Pencil (equivalent to a Bronze) in Digital.

The campaign, created for Muskrat Magazine, aimed to more accurately tell the story of Matoaka, the girl more commonly referred to in history and culture as Pocahontas. It involved creating an alternative audio track for the animated film that corrected romanticized depictions of Pocahontas that has shaped false narratives about Indigenous women and obstructed real-world events and harms, such as the Highway of Tears or the fact that Indigenous women are 12 times more likely to be murdered or go missing than any other demographic group.

Performance Art added to its award haul for Black & Abroad’s “Black Elevation Map,” winning a Yellow Pencil in the Integrated category. The campaign involved the creation of an interactive map that visualized over 330 million points of data on population distribution, Black-owned businesses and cultural institutions. The map helped deliver on Black & Abroad’s goal of curating Black-centric travel experiences, while also giving travellers a tool to help them support Black-owned businesses and attractions while on their journeys. The campaign also won three Graphite Pencils and four Wood Pencils.

Along with a Wood Pencil for BMW’s “Hofmeister Kink” campaign, Performance Art won eight Pencils at D&AD this year, the most among Canadian agencies this year.

D&AD has traditionally had notoriously high standards for awarding a Yellow Pencil – of the 639 Pencils awarded this year, only 69 were at the Yellow level.

Outside of the Yellow winners, Rethink won five Pencils for its work on Heinz Ketchup – one Graphite and two Wood for the “Fraud Ketchup” campaign, one Graphite for the “AI Ketchup” campaign and one Wood for “Draw Ketchup.”

Klick Health was another multi-Pencil winner, with two Graphite and two Wood for PAW NY’s “The Bridge.”

Also among the Canadian Pencil winners were Angry Butterfly, Cossette, FCB Canada, No Fixed Address and Zulu Alpha Kilo. With 60 winning entries, Canadian agencies had the fifth-best performance at D&AD this year, behind the U.S., U.K., France and Australia.

D&AD awarded a pair of Black Pencils, the show’s top prize. The first went to French production company Division in the Visual Effects/Craft category for the music video for Pharrell, 21 Savage and Tyler, The Creator’s song “Cash In, Cash Out,” which used CGI animation to create avatars of the three musicians.

The second Black Pencil went to Swedish agency Abby.World, winning in Product Design for The Swedish Heartchild Foundation’s “Heartbeat Drum Machine.” The device is a modular synthesiser that produces rhythms using the electrocardiograms of four children with different heart defects, turning a health issue into art that drives awareness for their conditions.

Division’s wins led to it being named Production Company of the Year, while Adam&eveDDB was named Advertising Agency of the Year, King Henry was named Design Agency of the Year, AB InBev was named Client of the Year and DDB was named Network of the Year.

The full list of winners can be found on the D&AD website.