ACT & Junk Kouture to Receive MIP SDG Awards

The third annual MIP SDG Award will be presented at MIPTV to ACT (Association of Commercial Television and Video on Demand Services in Europe), while the media and entertainment company Junk Kouture will be honored with the first MIP SDG Innovation Award.

The awards, established in support of the United Nations Decade of Action campaign, recognize media companies for their action and contribution to delivering against the initiative’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) internationally. Previous recipients have included Sky and A+E Networks.

ACT will receive the MIP SDG Award in honor of its leadership on the issue of online disinformation. The association’s ongoing campaign has promoted the value of trusted news sources to societies while bringing together private and public-service broadcasters, academics and NGOs to develop and provide potential regulatory solutions to the spread of disinformation. Guillaume de Posch, ACT’s president, and Grégoire Polad, ACT’s director-general, will be presented the award at a special session in the Palais des Festivals on the second day of MIPTV.

The inaugural MIP SDG Innovation Award will be presented at the same session, recognizing Junk Kouture for the impact of its creative integrated program that engages the world’s youth across several SDGs. In building a sustainable youth fashion competition, Junk Kouture has generated global awareness within the Gen Z demographic through broadcast partnerships education outreach, live events and content carried across social media channels. At MIPTV, the award will be presented to CEO and Founder Troy Armour.

Melissa Fleming, the under-secretary-general for global communications at the United Nations, said: “I congratulate ACT for their leadership role in galvanizing European media to develop a common stance on tackling disinformation. Misinformation puts lives at risk, divides society and pollutes the media landscape. It is also running rampant around the war in Ukraine. The need for trusted, accurate sources of information has never been more critical, and media plays a central role. It also gives me great pleasure to recognize Junk Kouture for having found fresh ways to engage young people as change-makers on the topic of sustainability.”

De Posch commented: “We are grateful and humbled to receive this prestigious award. This reflects the work of the ACT and all the work done by its members to promote the SDGs, particularly quality news and fact-checked information sources as relates to them. In these times of uncertainty, from Covid to the war in Ukraine, commercial television continues to play an essential role in bringing society together as a trusted and responsible media.”

Armour said: “Junk Kouture gives Gen Z the tools and creative space to become sustainability ambassadors, as they find their way to contribute towards the UN SDGs, be it by sourcing 63,000 aluminum ring pulls or manipulating orange peel into leather to create haute couture, they are the circular engineers of tomorrow. Junk Kouture’s goal is to enrich and empower the lives of young people all over the world through creativity and sustainability and it’s the transformative power of this initiative that keeps me going. We have had incredible support from our committed partners such as RTÉ through broadcast, award activations and social media support and also Creative Ireland in the development of our education hub, allowing us to continuously develop Junk Kouture’s offering both on- and off-screen. We’re extremely honored to be recognized for our contribution towards the SDGs by MIPTV, especially as we are launching Junk Kouture globally across multiple markets and continue to drive change through innate creativity.”

Lucy Smith, RX France’s entertainment division director and director of MIPTV, added: “We are delighted to honor both ACT and Junk Kouture for their impactful work. Be it in practically tackling online disinformation or a disruptive take on fashion programming, both have progressed the sustainability and development agenda significantly to audiences in recent years. There is much for our wider industry to admire, and learn from, in their approach and campaigns.”