FCB/Six wins two Golds, Gentilhomme wins one at ADC Awards

by David Brown

FCB/Six Toronto’s “Go Back to Africa” won two Gold Cubes and was named the best Interactive work of the year at the ADC Awards on Friday, adding to an already long list of awards show accolades.

That followed another Gold Cube win for Canada on Thursday by Montreal’s Gentilhomme, which won for rapper Tierra Whack’s performance at Coachella. Gentilhomme also won a Gold at the ADC last year for a 15-minute long “album movie” for Whack.

“Go Back to Africa” has been one of the best made-in-Canada success stories of the past year, winning top honours in awards both at home and abroad, including a Grand Prix in Cannes last June.

It was created for Black and Abroad, a travel and lifestyle brand catering to African Americans. The creative took hateful social posts that used the phrase “Go Back To Africa” as a pejorative and redacted everything around it to turn the phrase into an empowering message.

The ADC awards—which emphasize craft and innovation in design and advertising—are handed out by the One Club, usually as part of Creativity Week in New York City, along with the One Show.

Though Creativity Week was cancelled and other awards shows including the Cannes Lions have been cancelled outright, the One Club opted to go ahead with its awards program by announcing a handful of ADC categories each day this week.

“The ADC Annual Awards is a rare entity, able to apply an unrivalled legacy for recognizing excellence in craft to today’s latest innovative work in design,” said Kevin Swanepoel, CEO of The One Club.

“This year’s winners will inspire the creative community at a time when we all need it, and we’re thrilled to set the stage for an historic centennial celebration with next year’s ADC 100th Annual Awards.” The coveted best-of-show ADC Black Cube went to Apple and TBWA\Media Arts Lab for “Bounce” (see it below).

On Tuesday, No Fixed Address won a Gold for “Lolli: The Exhibit Nobody Wants to Talk About.” See the list of Canadian winners from Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday here, and the Canadian winners from Thursday and Friday below.

Thursday: Motion/Film/Gaming Craft and Publication Design.

  • Gentilhomme and Tierra Whack won Gold for “Coachella” in the discipline Motion/Film/Gaming Craft;
  • Giant Ant Vancouver and Slack won a Bronze for “Frontiers 2019 Intro,” also in Motion/Film/Gaming Craft;
  • Baillat Studio with Anteism Montreal and Dax Dasilva won a Bronze for “Age of Union” in Publication Design.

Friday: Advertising, Brand/Communications Design, Integrated and Interactive.

  • FCB/Six Toronto and Go Back to Africa won Gold in Advertising, a Gold and a Bronze in Interactive, and Bronze and Silver in Integrated;
  • Sid Lee and CN won Silver in Brand/Communications Design for “CN100—360 Campaign”;
  • Sid Lee and Protect Our Winters Canada won a Bronze for “Fact Avalanche” in the Interactive discipline;
  • Montreal’s July and Maison Dentaire won a Bronze for “Maison Dentaire No. 32” in Brand/Communications Design;
  • lg2 and Zoo de Granby won Bronze for “Zoo de Granby” in Brand/Communications Design;
  • Paprika Montreal and Arrondissement Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce won Bronze for “Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce,” also in Brand/Communications Design.

David Brown