Eri joins the Animation & VFX jury at shots Americas 2026
Freshly signed up to the shots jury - and at a pivotal moment for the advertising industry - Jelly EP Eri is making the case for slowing down, and caring more. As brands grapple with the tension between efficiency and artistry, she's noticing a "rebellious return to high-craft production" that feels like creative defiance. Here, she discusses what makes work stick, why craft matters more than ever, and which Super Bowl spot took her breath away this year.
"What makes work stand out to me is when you can sense the creative team fought for something - a specific visual choice, a narrative twist - and won through creative conviction and hard-earned client trust."
[Above: Snapple 'Snapsolutely Refreshing', Matte Cooper. Click here to view the project.]
What do you love about shots magazine, and what does being invited to join their jury mean to you personally and professionally?
shots is one of my first stops of the day, and where I know I can find a hit of inspiration. They just get it - they celebrate craft without losing sight of the strategy and absurdist thinking behind the work. It’s an honor to be asked to help shape what excellence looks like in animation and VFX, especially at this juncture when the industry is wrestling with speed over substance.
What type of work or themes are you expecting from the entries submitted? Is there anything you’re hopeful to see, or that you’d encourage to be submitted?
I’m already noticing this almost-rebellious return to high-craft production… a kind of creative defiance that feels like an early sign of AI fatigue. People are craving work that feels unmistakably human-made, so I'm hoping to see work that takes risks narratively and visually. I'd love to see more work that trusts the audience's intelligence, that doesn't explain everything, that lets visual storytelling do the heavy lifting and trusts the audience’s imagination to do the rest.
How do you approach judging work… are you led more by emotional impact, technical craft, originality, or something else?
It’s a combo jobby… the best work hits on multiple levels. The very first hurdle that has to be cleared is ‘does this make me feel something? does it stick with me after I've seen it?’ I think that technical craft matters enormously in achieving this end goal, but without emotional resonance it falls short. You can tell when every choice was deliberate versus when someone threw effects at the wall for the sake of it.
Is there a piece of work you’ve seen recently that embodies the kind of creative excellence you associate with shots? What made it stand out to you?
What makes work stand out to me is when you can sense the creative team fought for something - a specific visual choice, a narrative twist - and won through creative conviction and hard-earned client trust. Work in this vein that caught my breath in the last year was Apple's "A Critter Carol," Martin's "Must Cinnadust" for Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and most recently, my personal Super Bowl MVP, Quality Meat Shop's "Hair Ballad" for MANSCAPED, which was just unbelievable. They represent completely different approaches to craft, but each one is unmistakably the product of creators who were given space to follow their vision all the way through. Gleefully weird but commercially clear.
[Above: Apple 'A Critter Carol', TBWA\Media Arts Lab, Smuggler, Mark Molloy. Watch the BTS via Smuggler here. Manscaped 'Hair Ballad', Quality Meats, MJZ, The Perlorian Brothers. Watch the BTS via LBB here.]
"We have the power to celebrate work that pushes boundaries, which in turn signals to brands that it's okay to stick to your instincts, to put great trust in your carefully chosen creative partners, and to take risks rather than defaulting to what feels safest."
As someone deeply embedded in the industry, what responsibility do jurors have in shaping the direction of commercial creativity?
It's a chance to come together with other minds in the industry that I deeply respect and admire and say "this is what we value" to the entire industry, so the responsibility is real. We have the power to celebrate work that pushes boundaries, which in turn signals to brands that it's okay to stick to your instincts, to put great trust in your carefully chosen creative partners, and to take risks rather than defaulting to what feels safest. We also have a responsibility to call out craft and to reward the painstaking hours that went into achieving something visually or narratively complex, especially now when the pressure is all toward faster and cheaper.
What shifts in storytelling or visual language are you noticing across advertising and branded content right now?
There's a definite tension at play: on one side, there's this race toward AI-assisted, "perfectly" optimized content that feels increasingly soulless. On the other, there's this renewed appreciation for and interest in the craft of production. It feels like a sign that audiences and creators alike are craving work that bears the unmistakable fingerprints of human creativity. Even recent media choices and the resulting format-breaking approaches feel clever, intentional, and unexpected... craft isn’t just about the medium, it’s about all of the choices made along the way.
[Above L-R: Eri breaks down what she loves about Cinnamon Toast Crunch's crafty 'Must Cinnadust' for our 'Craft We Love' series. Watch it on Instagram here | Behind the scenes on Matte Cooper's 'Wilderflowers' for Generation Wild. Click here to find out more about this project.]
"The most powerful advertising has always held up a mirror to culture while moving it forward, we need more of that and less pandering to the lowest common denominator."
Is there a type of work you feel the industry needs more of right now, culturally / creatively?
Culturally, I think we need work that reflects the complexity of the moment without being heavy-handed about it. The most powerful advertising has always held up a mirror to culture while moving it forward, we need more of that and less pandering to the lowest common denominator.
Craft can mean many things… How do you personally define great craft?
In the present day, craft is the culmination of many choices big and small, each made with respect at their core. Respect for the audience, for the medium, for the highly skilled collaborators who contribute their expertise - for the sum total time that meaningful work requires. And that time isn't just production hours, it's the time it takes to build trusting client relationships that allow 'leap of faith' ideas to happen, time for proper strategic and creative development at the front end, and time to execute unconventional production ideas without cutting corners.
In an era of faster production cycles and multi-platform output, how can creators maintain high craft standards?
Being a unified front in helping clients and agency partners understand that quality takes time, and showcasing examples of how audiences appreciate great creativity and brands benefit from speaking to them with authenticity and craft. Jelly take Fridays to appreciate well-crafted campaigns by our industry peers, and this is something that makes me so proud. A rising tide lifts all boats…
What do you hope the winning work from this year ultimately says about the creative industry in this moment?
That it makes both emotional and business sense to value creative courage over safe execution. And that while speed and metrics are important, they can’t overshadow the goal of making timeless work that sticks to the ribs for years to come and reminds us why we all got into this business in the first place.
[Above: IKEA 'Ways To Shop', Matte Cooper. Click here to view the project]
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