The Guardian's 'Three Little Pigs' reimagines a fairy tale as news — Ad of the Year 2012

The Guardian had gone 25 years without a major brand TV ad, and its 'open journalism' strategy — opening the newsroom and its sources to readers across print, web, social and video — was hard to feel from words alone. It needed one idea that made readers experience the strategy.

Retell the Three Little Pigs as a breaking news event — pigs arrested, tweets flying, front page and twist — so open journalism is seen, not described.

BBH London's two-minute film imagines The Guardian covering the Three Little Pigs as a live modern news event: a police raid on the pigs' brick house, a murder charge against them, tweets and TV debates, a front page, and an insurance-fraud twist — ending on 'The whole picture'. Directed by Ringan Ledwidge, it premiered on Channel 4 on 29 February 2012 and rolled out on YouTube, Facebook and theguardian.com/open.

The film became the Guardian's most-viewed YouTube video since its channel launched in 2006, passing one million views within three months; it reached about two million views with roughly 82,000 tweets within four months. It won a Cannes Film Gold Lion, Adweek's Ad of the Year 2012 and Best Crafted Commercial at the British Arrows, and AdAge ranked it #4 TV ad of 2012.

In February 2012 The Guardian was 25 years into a brand-advertising hiatus while arguing that journalism should be 'open' — sources shared with readers, stories covered across print, web, social and video. BBH London was asked to make that strategy visible to millions.

The answer was a two-minute film that retells the Three Little Pigs as a breaking news event: police raid the brick house, the pigs are charged with the wolf's death, and the story ripples through tweets, TV debates and a front page before a final twist — the pigs accused of wrecking their own home for insurance fraud. Each platform appears as part of the coverage, and the film closes on the campaign line 'The whole picture'.

Directed by Ringan Ledwidge and premiered on Channel 4 on 29 February 2012, the spot was the centrepiece of The Guardian's 'open journalism' brand campaign, with print and online executions backing it up. Editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger framed the thinking as opening the paper's reporting to 'anyone, anywhere'.

The response made it the Guardian's most-viewed YouTube video since the channel's 2006 launch, passing one million views within three months and roughly two million views with about 82,000 tweets within four. It took a Cannes Film Gold Lion, Adweek's Ad of the Year 2012 and Best Crafted Commercial at the British Arrows, and was ranked #4 by AdAge's Best of 2012 TV.

A universally known fairy tale meant no exposition was needed — all attention went to the retelling.

The film's structure was the product: coverage across print, web, social and video embodied open journalism itself.

The 'whole picture' twist made the strategy a payoff, not a lecture.

One two-minute film gave a 191-year-old paper a digital-first identity it could show the world.

If your strategy is invisible, make it a story the audience lives through: dramatizing a news event's whole life cycle let viewers feel 'open journalism' instead of being told about it.

The spot became the Guardian's brand calling card: BBH followed with 'Own the Weekend', and in March 2013 BBH New York built directly on its success with 'Voice Your View', the Guardian's first US ad campaign. The film remains a fixture of industry retrospectives — a 2016 Creative Review podcast dissected its making — and is still cited in award case studies as a model for making an editorial strategy cinematic.