“Social Smoking,” the public service campaign from BBDO Toronto for the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, shall henceforth be called “the fart heard around the world.” The work has won a Bronze Integrated Lion at the 60th annual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
The campaign, which warns against the dangers of occasional or “social” smoking, replaces cigarettes with other disgusting habits to illustrate how “ridiculous” the habit is.
Margaret Johnson, ECD at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, said the tone of the jury’s conversation about this work matched the tone of the work itself.
“Everybody liked it because it’s a really funny approach to a really serious problem,” Johnson said. “That felt very unique for the category and any kind of public service. It helps target younger people.”
Ed Ulbrich, CEO of Digital Domain in the U.S., said he was proud that the jury had, basically, awarded a “fart joke” with a Lion. “It’s so funny. Everybody laughed. In one way, we’re awarding a fart joke, but a really good fart joke. It worked.”
The Integrated Lions are grouped with the Titanium Lion contest, which awards work that is seen as leading edge and an indicator of where the new frontiers of marketing are to be found.
Both an Integrated and Titanium Grand Prix were awarded Saturday. The festival hit “Dumb Ways To Die” railway safety campaign from McCann Melbourne took the Integrated title.
Jury member David Lubars, chairman and CCO at BBDO Worldwide, said “Dumb Ways” was loved on two levels. “First of all, it’s in the integrated category and there are at least 10 touch points here. It was the most integrated thing we saw… And it really shows a lot of love and respect for its audience. It’s not just clever. It goes deeper and tries to be empathetic [and] not only entertains.”
He also said that much of the other gold- and Titanium-winning work shared those characteristics, especially in the case of Unilever’s “Real Beauty Sketches” by Ogilvy Brazil, which won the much vaunted Titanium Grand Prix.
Ogilvy’s work continues Dove’s global “Real Beauty” campaign that attempts to set the brand apart from the image-focused fashion and cosmetics industry, which it portrays as shallow and damaging to women’s self-esteem. “Sketches,” through use of a sketch artist, showed the difference between how women see themselves compared to how they are seen by others.
