2025 Winner

More than two in five gamers say they’ve experienced racism in online play and more than half have faced harassment – yet no formal rating system exists for the toxicity of online gaming environments. To address this gap, Melanin Gamers launched “The Toxicity Rating,” the first-ever rating system that measures and scores toxic behaviour in online gameplay. Built using the same methodology as the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) and backed by Angus Reid research, the system rated five top games – Call of Duty, Fortnite, Minecraft, Apex Legends and Valorant – based on six toxicity factors that included racism, gender discrimination and crude humour. The results were published on thetoxicityrating.com, a site that also allowed gamers to submit their own experiences. The campaign sparked massive engagement: 1.5M organic views, more than 3,000 comments and 2,500 new ratings submitted within two weeks. The initiative caught the attention of the ESRB president, opening discussions for future collaboration.

Credits

Creative Agency: Leo Toronto
President: Ben Tarr
Managing Director, Account Services: Natasha Dagenais
Chief Strategy Officer: Tahir Ahmad
Co-Chief Creative Officers: Steve Persico, Lisa Greenberg
VP, Development and Communications: Richard Newman
Executive Creative Director: Kohl Forsberg
Associate Creative Director/Art Director: Tyler McKissick
Senior Copywriter: Coleman Mallery
Group Creative Director/Copywriter: Ryan Kukec
VP, Group Creative Director, Design: Man Wai Wong
Designer: Donna Liu
Producer: Mike Spilchuk
SVP, Group Strategy Director: Ryan Roberts
VP, Director of Creative Technology: Felix Wardene
Digital Project Director: Tom Degez
Web Developer: David Freedman
Animator: Yar Kukhtin
VP, Post and Print Production: Gord Cathmoir
Editor: Ryan Tomka

Strategy: MSL Group/North Strategic
CEO: Jessica Savage
Account Director: Sarah Harris
Account Executive: Christina Mangiola
Account Services: Lucy Luc

Research Company: The Angus Reid Group

Client: Melanin Gamers
Founder: Annabel Ashalley-Anthony