In the book Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need, writer Blake Snyder says that there are really only 10 plots for movies, including the ever-reliable best friends fall in love plot and the overused man-thrust-into-unusual-situation-and-must-rise-to-the-occasion storyline. Unfortunately, many politicians fall into the same type of trap, using the boring town hall meeting, ribbon-cutting ceremony and prayer breakfast to fill up their calendars.

But not former Chicago Alderman Témoc Morfin, who jumped out of the box with his “What’s Wrong with this Picture?” community photo contest. Between the simple layout and the concept itself, Morfin wins our Most Inspired Political Newsletter award.

The “What’s Wrong with this Picture?” photo contest, which took place earlier this year, was much more than the usual community political event, because it encouraged residents to take pictures of things in the Chicago suburb of Pilson that concerned them. This included everything from a photo of trash lining a sidewalk to one of a massive plume rising from a smoke stack. The awards ceremony highlighted the best of these photos, but also raised awareness on how far leadership needed to go to make things right.

To get more people to attend the event, Team Morfin understood that the layout could not look like the same ‘ol, same ‘ol political event email newsletter. So they chose a clean-yet-dynamic layout similar to one advertising a film festival. Black and white were the main colors, framed by a film strip peppered with photos from the contest. With Morfin’s orange, blue and green logo as the only real color in the newsletter, it really stood out and left no doubt that the politician was the one who ran the contest.

Morin is apparently locked in a recount with one of his political opponents, and the outcome of whether or not he’ll become Alderman is in question. However, even if he loses, he can at least walk away knowing that we found his newsletter interesting, so much so that it took home our Most Inspired Political Newsletter Award.

Check out the full campaign in our Benchmark Email Community!