Adland executives spend night in prison to raise awareness for youth incarceration
80 advertising leaders will be locked up at Yasmar Detention Centre in June as part of Unltd’s Adland Bail Out campaign.
The announcement:
This June, 80 advertising industry executives are spending a night in prison, to raise funds and awareness for young people at risk. The executives are taking part in UnLtd’s Adland Bail Out, a unique and confronting experience designed to reflect the harsh realities faced by young people in the justice system.
The first ‘inmates’ have been confirmed to include Kristiaan Kroon from OMG, Philippa Noilea-Tani from Wavemaker, Cameron Curtis from News, Elle Galipienzo from Initiative, Scott Laird from GroupM, Natalie Harvey from Mamamia and many others.
On 20th June, the ‘inmates’ will hand over their possessions (including those precious phones), put on their prison overalls and get locked in the cells of Yasmar Detention Centre. The participants will be finger-printed, interrogated and security checked before taking part in thought-provoking workshops about the realities of youth incarceration. After some prison grub, the ‘inmates’ will be locked in to sleep on the cold hard floors of their prison cell.
In order to be released the next morning, each inmate needs to fundraise $1,250 as their ‘bail’. All the funds raised from the event go towards UnLtd’s work campaigning to break the vicious cycle of youth incarceration.
Kristiaan Kroon, COO of OMG said:
“Bail Out is a really important night for our industry to show our best. Youth detention and the realities of what life is like for too many Australian kids is a long way from our industry’s day-to-day. I am really proud to work in an industry that has UnLtd and every year finds close to 100 people, who are supported by thousands more, to go through the process of understanding more and supporting better outcomes.”
This year’s event will also see a return of previous participants, now stepping into the role of ‘guards’ to keep order on the inside, including Ricky Chanana from Pubmatic, Sev Celik from Tonic Media, Chris Murphy from GSquared, Nick Bower from Paramount, Matthew Coote from GumGum, Kathryn Furnari from Innocean, Pia Coyle from PHD, Rachel Troy from ART Consultancy and Arvind Hickman from B&T.
2025 Adland Bail Out inmates so far:
Aimee Edwards, B&T
Allana Selden, Pinterest
Amanda Bardas, Val Morgan
Ben Allman, Broadsign
Brittany Crowley, UM
Cameron Curtis, News
Cath Coleman, WooliesX
Catherine Rushton, This is Flow
Chris Manson, Ogury
Conor Riordan, Kaimera
David Cant, The Edward Alexander Foundation
Dean La Rosa, News
EJ Owens, Impact
Elle Galipienzo, Initiative
Elliot Morton, Disney ESPN
Emma Logan, The Emma Logan Project
Erin Koedam, MiQ
Jaclyn Hadida, Captify
Jess Miles, Integralads
Keiran Beasley, SBS
Kelly Wu, Pinterest
Kerri Elstub, Nine
Kristiaan Kroon, OMD
Laura Pulini, The Trade Desk
Lauren Dawber, Optus
Liz Anderson, Meta
Maddie Jahnke, Pernod Ricard
Marika James, Go Transit
Matt McGinley, Uber
Natalie Harvey, mamamia
Nathan Jackson, Taboola
Philippa Moig, UnLtd
Philippa Noilea-Tani, Wavemaker
Rhys Mugdan, Nova
Ruth Haffenden, Involved Media / Flying Tiger Copenhagen
Ryan Ferguson, Snapchat
Scott Laird, GroupM
Simon Flaxman, OMG
Tim Bowen, Scentre Group
Tom Hosking, Meta
Tom Loudon, Little Black Book Online
Winston Stening, Vistar
Source: Unltd
Editor’s note: Mumbrella has changed the way it deals with company names. House style is now to use standard proper noun capitalisation on all names regardless of brand typography. Brand typography may be retained in direct quotes from releases.
