What it had to solve
Elgiganten AB, the Swedish electronics retailer, wanted to promote its recycling and repair services for outdated and broken electronics — a message usually delivered with polished product photography that says nothing about the pile of dead gadgets in people's drawers.
How it works
NORD DDB Stockholm built the campaign billboards to look faulty: screens appeared cracked, glitched or malfunctioning, stopping passers-by who thought the hardware had died. Once viewers connected the damaged medium to the message about broken devices, the confusion turned into the pitch for Elgiganten's repair and recycling services.
What it did
DOOH Digital reports the campaign won the 2025 Digital Creative Competition and calls it one of the most talked-about OOH ideas of 2025; no volume or business metrics are given.
Background
For a campaign pushing Elgiganten's recycling and repair services for old electronics, NORD DDB Stockholm skipped the polished route and let the advertising medium itself play the patient. The billboards were deliberately made to look damaged — cracked, glitching, malfunctioning screens.
The trick works on a curiosity gap: passers-by stop because the hardware appears to have failed, and that moment of confusion resolves into understanding when the damaged screen is connected to the real problem — outdated and broken technology piling up at home — and to Elgiganten's repair and recycling services.
The idea also rides the public conversation around e-waste and responsible tech disposal, and per trade coverage it earned industry recognition, winning the 2025 Digital Creative Competition.
Why it lands
The medium demonstrates the product problem instead of describing it.
A seemingly malfunctioning screen earns the second look that polished ads rarely get.
Tying a retail service to the e-waste conversation gives the campaign relevance beyond the shop.
What you can take
When the product is fixing broken things, the most persuasive ad is a broken ad.
Since then
The material records only the award recognition; no business results are given.
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