DDB Canada and DraftFCB Toronto have both won bronze Cannes Film Lions.
DDB’s “Mustang” and “Curfew” spots for Lilly Canada’s Cialis erectile dysfunction pharmaceutical brand won as a campaign in the Pharmacy category. Operating in a regulatory environment where ads cannot directly address the product’s intended benefits and prohibit references to sexual activity, the work shows creative ways parents get their kids out of the house for extended periods of time.
Canadian Judge Judy John, CEO and chief creative officer at Leo Burnett, said she had to explain the tough laws surrounding the ad’s creation to the jury, which was then appreciative of the way DDB dealt with the issue. “The jurors thought it was a brilliant solution for such a tight box,” she said.
Draft’s film “Focus Group” was a promotional film for the National Advertising Awards, playing with tropes associated with the ad industry’s views on consumer research. Its gold came in the Short Format Internet Film category.
“Everybody laughed, but nobody was voting for it,” John said. “I was gonna say something, but [jury president] John [Hegarty] jumped in and said ‘This is funny, and who hasn’t felt this.’ It’s a perfectly targeted piece for the NAA award show. He said ‘Who in the room hasn’t seen that person or hasn’t wanted to do that.’ My work was done and I didn’t need to say anything.”
The two Canadian awards emerged from 10 shortlist opportunities (eight from within Canada, two from Canadian operations abroad).
The jury awarded two Grand Prix Lions in Film. Hegarty, founder of BBH, said the dual awards were meant to recognize the different challenges inherent in producing for TV and long-form online films.
Festival attendees were already familiar with both Grand Prix winners, based on their earlier wins – McCann Melbourne’s “Dumb Ways To Die” railway safety film and Pereira & O’Dell’s “The Beauty Inside” for Intel and Toshiba.
The viral hit “Dumb Ways To Die” has won numerous golds and Grand Prix trophies already, as has “The Beauty Inside,” including a Branded Content Grand Prix on Saturday.
Hegarty said both films “captured the jury’s imagination,” and succeeded on different fronts. While Metro Trains’ “Dumb Ways to Die” integrated itself into the social fabric of the intended audience (and those beyond), he said, Toshiba and Intel’s series of films “created a great piece of content that works with the very heart of their brand. [It’s a] very clever way of linking the brand to the story. It’s not just about making entertainment, it’s about promoting [a product].”
Film Craft
The Film Craft competition also concluded today. There were no Canadian medalists, though JWT Toronto‘s “You Got It” for Sickkids Foundation and Sid Lee Paris‘ “Rise” for Ubisoft were both shortlisted.
The contest – which examines production elements such as cinematography, music and editing – gave its Grand Prix to “Meet The Superhumans,” a lengthy ad by 4creative that featured paralympians in training, dynamic editing and an aggressive soundtrack to promote the London Paralympic Games last summer.
Jury president and director Joe Pytka said every element of the spot is “almost perfection. The cinematography is profound and subtle. The editing is just clever enough in places where it needs to be clever, but honest in other places. The music is completely unexpected and appropriate. The more we saw it, the more we loved it.
“It’s a profoundly emotional commercial because it deals with people with tremendous restrictions on their physical capabilities,” Pytka said. “At first you think it’s an easy commercial, too much of a heart-tugging commercial. But it really isn’t. It’s very dramatic.”
