The Message from Cannes Lions 2019, brought to you by…

The final Cannes shortlist, the Sustainable Development Goals Lions, was announced on Thursday, with Canadian agencies John St. and Rethink garnering two of the 80 nods, and McCann Canada scoring a mention on a U.S. submission.

First introduced in 2018, the Sustainable Development Goals Lions celebrate “creative problem solving, solutions or other initiatives that harness creativity and seek to positively impact the world.”

Entrants are judged on how they contributed to the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and are divided into five sections: People, planet, prosperity, peace and partnerships.

Rethink was shortlisted for “The Climate Change Effect” for IKEA (see video below), which brought the effect of climate change to its customers by raising the temperate inside its stores by four degrees—the same amount the average global temperature could rise by 2090 if emissions continue to increase.

John St. was recognized for “The Monthly,” a program for Shoppers Drug Mart that provided access to feminine hygiene products for homeless and transient women. The program transformed old newspaper boxes into discreet tampon dispensers and placed them in Toronto’s at-risk communities. The boxes could only be unlocked via a code that was provided to area homeless shelters.

McCann Canada received another shortlist nod for the “Second Chance” program submitted by California’s Casanova/McCann. The program previously won Gold in the PR Lions competition.