The Brief 2025: Mo Corriveau’s Experience
This October—fresh off the annual, beloved brand-planning sprint—I dove into The Brief #5, a Cannes-run competition for creatives, strategists, and marketers across the globe. More than 300 of us came together to channel our collective imagination toward a single mission: helping The Lotus Flower Charity.
The Lotus Flower is an extraordinary, resilient organization serving women and children in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the UK who have endured war, displacement, and unimaginable loss. Its founder, Taban Shoresh, a former child-genocide survivor, knows their pain firsthand and has dedicated her life to rebuilding lives with dignity. Since 2016, the charity has helped more than 100,000 women find stability, access education, and begin again with confidence and autonomy.
To mark its upcoming 10th anniversary, The Lotus Flower partnered with Cannes to develop a bold fundraising campaign. Our task: inspire people to give without relying on the familiar tropes of suffering. Because Taban’s mission is crystal clear, these women are not victims to pity, they are powerful agents of change. Standing in that truth made this brief the kind of assignment that stays with you long after the slide deck closes.
My team of five stretched across three time zones, spoke two languages, and had four weeks to land a big idea, shape it into ten sharp slides, and capture it in a 500-word essay. The first week was all polite nods and generous brainstorming. By week two, we were swimming in 20 ideas and zero decisions. Time for the chopping block.
Then it clicked. We rallied around a beautifully unexpected concept, one we knew would make the judges pause. It might not have been the most traditional long-term brand fit, but it had undeniable emotional and financial potential. Our idea, “A Lasting Impact,” imagined a partnership with leading UK tattoo artists who would donate to The Lotus Flower every time a lotus flower tattoo was inked in honor of women and children rising from hardship.
We planned to “hack” the behaviors already happening organically, using SEO and social strategy to intercept anyone searching “lotus flower tattoo,” one of the world’s most common designs. Every search would lead them toward the charity’s story, giving the symbol deeper meaning and turning personal expression into direct impact.
It was scrappy. It was ambitious. And it reminded me why I love this industry, because creativity, when pointed at the right problem, can move people, resources, and futures.
If the mission of The Lotus Flower moves you too, I encourage you to learn more, get inspired, and give what you can. Even a single dollar helps someone rebuild what war tried to take away.
Explore the work and donate at: https://thelotusflower.org/.