University of Gloucestershire Advertising Alumni wins Chip Shop Award

​Ellie Skidmore, who graduated with in November 2019 with a First Class Honours degree, won with her chilling view into the future: a screenshot view of the Unidays (student discount) app showing a 10% discount voucher for NHS treatments. ​

Ellie’s inspiration for the idea spiralled from the landslide election victory by the Conservative Party in 2019. She took a satirical look at how this might affect the NHS and, following that, how life could be for students of the future.

Initially planning to enter the ‘Political Ad’ category due to the origins of the idea, Ellie switched category after some deliberations with her former lecturer Carl Halford, and decided to enter ‘Best Ad from the Future’ – and won.

The winners were announced in a virtual ceremony last month.

Ellie Skidmore, University of Gloucestershire BA Advertising alumni, said:
“Beyond shocked and thrilled doesn’t even slightly cover my excitement from the awards evening. I screamed at my laptop. It was a little strange having a virtual awards ceremony when normally it would have been a big event in London but it was really quite fun. I was sat in my bedroom in front of my laptop with my sisters and a glass of bubbly, which actually I loved.

“I remember back in 2016 when I went to my interview for the Advertising course, I fell in love with everything at the university straight away. My former lecturer Carl Halford, who took my interview, really made me feel as though advertising was the right creative route for me and he was totally right.

“My long-term aspirations are to one day become an Art Director within the creative advertising industry. I think this experience has given me more confidence within my creative work and that I am barking up the right tree as far as my career goes.” ​

Carl Halford, Lecturer in BA Advertising at the University of Gloucestershire, said:
“Hearing the news that Ellie won the Top Prize in the Best Ad From the Future category in the 2020 Chip Shop awards was amazing. “It’s great to see that students from our class of 2019 (our most creative-industry-awarded cohort of all time) are continuing to stamp their creative mark all over ad-land, and this is a testament to Ellie’s creative prowess. We’ve got a feeling we’re going to see a few more awards come her way in the near future!” ​