Expedition Impossible
Columbia Sportswear2025
Expedition Impossible is a 2025 public challenge and PR stunt for Columbia Sportswear, created by adam&eve\TBWA, London.
The line
It’s time to put your map where your mouth is.
Why it works
In late 2025 Columbia Sportswear's chief executive, Tim Boyle, issued a dare to flat-earthers: find the edge of the Earth, photograph it, and you win the company. He made the offer in an open letter in The New York Times, on the TV news and in films that walked viewers through everything up for grabs. The fine print was real. Columbia set up The Company, LLC, registered it in Oregon and put $100,000 of assets in it as the prize. Made by adam&eve\TBWA London for the brand's Engineered for Whatever platform, it is studied as a product claim (gear tough enough for the ends of the Earth) turned into a public game, fronted by a chief executive who has been the family firm's public face for decades. Nobody found the edge. At Cannes in 2026 it won the Brand Experience & Activation Grand Prix and a Titanium Lion among ten Lions, more than any other campaign. The case figures cite 80 million earned audience and 10 million organic views.
Techniques
- Participation Turns a durability claim into an open dare: anyone who finds and photographs the edge of the Earth wins the company itself.
- Humour Teases flat-earthers with a deadpan challenge to prove their theory, backed by a real company set up as the prize.
- Ethos Has the chief executive, the family firm's public face for decades, make the offer personally, lending the stunt his credibility.
Sources · 4
- UK’s Adam & Eve\TBWA wins Brand Experience and Activation Grand Prix
- Why Columbia went looking for an agency willing to go too far
- Cannes Lions 2026 Grand Prix Winners in Brand Experience & Activation, Business Transformation, Commerce, Effectiveness, Strategy, Innovation, and Luxury
- Columbia Sportswear Challenges Flat Earthers
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