Canada added three Lions to its tally in Cannes today, the last day of the 55th annual International Advertising Festival.
The awards came in the Film competition while Canada came up empty in the thinly awarded Titanium & Integrated competition.
BBDO Toronto and DDB both won Silver Film Campaign Lions; BBDO for the Diet 7Up spots “Emoticon Susan,” and “Elevator small talk Tony” for client Pepsi-QTG.
The DDB contingent will take back its Lion to the Vancouver office after winning for the Pacific Blue Cross ads “Elevator” and “Metal shop.”
Halifax-based agency Extreme Group landed a Bronze Lion for its “Nail” spot for the Workers’ Compensation Board of Nova Scotia.
Zig creative director and Canadian Film jury representative Aaron Starkman said the Diet 7Up spots weren’t even down for a Bronze initially, but during the debate, Starkman argued for the campaign and the spots jumped right over Bronze to Silver.
Similarly, Nail was close to being left out of the Lions until the debate. Dove’s “Onslaught” by Ogilvy & Mather, Rethink’s “No fees equals no stress” for Coast Capital Savings and Zig’s “Comfeze” were also close to getting a Lion, said Starkman.
The Film jury also broke new ground today by awarding two Film Grand Prix, a direct result of adding online film into the category along with traditional broadcast work.
Fallon London and Cadbury won for “Gorilla” while T.A.G. San Francisco and McCann Worldgroup of San Francisco won a Grand Prix campaign for their work for Microsoft’s Halo 3.
Jury president Craig Davis said the unanimous “landmark” decision was made only after hours of “fairly colourful and animated” debate.
Cannes is “first and foremost” a festival, he said. “It is meant to be festive. It is meant to be a celebration,” said Davis, JWT’s worldwide chief creative officer. It seemed “unnecessarily harsh” to award one piece without the other.
“It wasn’t born out of indecision,” added Australian juror Ted Horton. “We were all very decisive about it.”
The judges lauded the Halo 3 long-form online videos that featured elderly veterans of the Halo wars reflecting on the victory for humankind and the heroism of the chief.
Davis addressed the polarized opinion about the drum-playing Gorilla spot, produced for TV but which also became a viral hit. “It is a courageous piece of work. It defies many of the conventions of confectionary advertising,” he said. “Gorilla challenges all the assumptions and says chocolate is about pleasure.”
Starkman said he would have been “disappointed if it wasn’t a dual Grand Prix.” But he also admitted a preference for the Cadbury ad.
“Halo should be applauded because it is so hard to do [breakthrough work] online,” he said. “But I’d argue that Gorilla is even harder.” There are no rules for online work, but the opposite is true for television. “To stand out and do something so captivating is an incredible achievement.”
Halo 3 also won the Integrated Grand Prix in the Titanium & Integrated competition, while a Titanium Grand Prix was given to Projector Tokyo and Uniqlo for “Uniqlock.”
Uniqlock, simply a digital clock available as a desktop widget or on mobile phones, shows a woman playfully modeling Uniqlo casual clothing.
“Our goal was very simply to find the freshest thinking in the world right now,” said jury president Mark Tutssel, chief creative officer at Leo Burnett Worldwide. “[Uniqlock] captures the essence of the brand in a fresh new way,” he said.
“It is more than beautiful,” said juror and Naked Communications founding partner Paul Woolmington. “Everyone in the industry is talking about viral things,” he added. “This is viral branded utility. This is the future. This is where viral has to go.”
“Even in countries where Uniqlo doesn’t exist, it has a brand presence,” added Nick Law, executive vice-president and chief creative officer at R/GA.
In total, four other Lions were awarded in the competition. Titanium Lions went to Droga 5 and the New York City Department of Education for “Million” and to Studio Brussels and Mortier Brigade for “Black boy wanting water.”
And Integrated Lions went to Crispin Porter + Bogusky for Burger King’s “Whopper freakout” and JWT India and the Times of India for “Lead India.”
Surprisingly absent was HBO’s Voyeur Project, which won two Grand Prix earlier in the week in the Promo and Outdoor competitions.
Asked about the decision not to give Voyeur an Integrated Lion, Duncan Marshall, executive creative director, partner at Droga 5, said there was “a lot of debate about how many people would be able to see it.” It was a “lovely idea. The other ideas were just better.”
“The most wonderful thing about it was the projected outdoor part,” added Law. But from a digital perspective, “it wasn’t that deep.”
Aside from the online video, Halo 3 included a mock exhibition of photographs from the Halo Wars as well as an interactive website diorama that gave visitors a chance to immerse themselves in a war monument. “God is in the details,” said Tutssel. “And with Halo, every single component part is just exquisite.”
With only tonight’s closing gala remaining, Canada finishes the Festival with nine Lions.
Apart from the Film awards, Taxi 2 added a Gold Lion for its “Minimalism” website for BMW’s Mini in the Cyber Competition, while Taxi won a Silver Design Lion for a poster that was part of its 15 Below initiative. Also in Design, Toronto agency GJP won a Gold Lion for a brochure designed for Down Below, the female waxing studio at Gee Beauty in Toronto.
Three Radio Lions are coming back to Canada. A Gold went to Zig for the IKEA spot “Low voice.” Sid Lee’s five-second “What’s new?” spot for antique dealer Jean Lacasse Antiquaire received a Bronze as did a Durex Condom ad created by MacLaren McCann but submitted by New York production company Oink Ink Radio, and therefore officially an American entry.
