“Courage is Beautiful” won its second Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions on Wednesday, with the latest top honour coming in the Industry Craft Lions—which celebrate “the creative artistry, talent and skill required to deliver a beautifully executed solution and bring a creative idea to life.”
The Festival has separate Digital Craft and Film Craft Lions (winners below), with the Industry Craft Lions including five creative disciplines: typography, art direction, illustration, photography, and copywriting, with sub-categories for different media.
Three executions from the Dove campaign, “Patricia,” “Amanda,” and “Patrick” won the Grand Prix as a campaign in the Art Direction/Outdoor category. Two of the ads, “Patricia” and “Amanda,” also won a campaign Gold Lion in Photography/Outdoor.
In the Digital Craft Lions, FCB Canada with Google won Gold for the Canadian Down Syndrome Society’s “Project Understood.” It’s the fourth win for the campaign this week, following a Silver and Bronze Lion in the Direct competition and a Bronze in the Health &Wellness Lions.
Part of FCB’s ongoing and widely praised awareness raising work for CDSS, the goal of “Project Understood,” was to make voice assistants more effective by training Google’s software to recognize the distinct speech patterns of those living with Down syndrome.
The Digital Craft Grand Prix was given to Epic Games for “Astronomical,” which saw concert performances by rap superstar Travis Scott delivered inside Fortnite (below).
Canada was shut out of the Film Craft Lions, with the Grand Prix going to AMV BBDO London and Chelsea Pictures, L.A. for “#Wombstories” for Libresse’s Essity (below).
Entertainment Lions
According to the Festival, the Entertainment Lions are for creativity that “turns content into culture.” The lone Canadian win was for Bensimon Byrne and Casey House, which landed a Bronze Lion for “The HIV+ Episodes ‘Losing Friends.'”
As part of Casey House’s efforts to smash stigma about HIV, Bensimon Byrne carefully dubbed popular TV shows The Office and Friends to create storylines about characters getting HIV. Warner Bros. forced Casey House and Bensimon Byrne to take down the Friends episode.
There were two Entertainment Lions Grand Prix winners: One went to Taiwan’s DentsuMcGarryBowen Taipei City “In Love We Trust” for Sinyi Reality, and the other was awarded to 72 and Sunny and Tinder for “Swipe Night” (both below).
In the Entertainment Lions for Music —”creative musical collaborations and original music content”—BBDO and Regent Park School of Music won a Bronze Lion for “Parkscapes.”
The two Grand Prix winners were “Feed Parade” from Gut Agency, Sao Paulo for Mercado Livre (below) and the music video for Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus.
There were no Canadian winners in the Entertainment Lions for Sport (“creativity that taps into fan culture and leverages the power of sports and eSports in connecting people to brands”), although there was a Canadian connection to one of the Grand Prix winners: Edelman London’s “Eternal Run” for Asics.
“It’s a huge creative accolade to win the Cannes Grand Prix for Entertainment for Sport,” said Judy John, the agency’s Toronto-based worldwide chief creative officer. “For Edelman, it proves that our continued investment in creativity and integration are paying off. We are so proud to have brave clients who want non-traditional ideas that earn attention.”
The other Grand Prix went to “Salla 2032” from Africa DDB, Sao Paulo and House of Lapland.
Grand Prix Winners
Epic Games — “Astronomical”
AMV BBDO London, Chelsea Pictures, L.A. and Libresse — “#Wombstories”
DentsuMcGarryBowen Taipei City and Sinyi Reality — “In Love We Trust”
72 and Sunny and Tinder — “Swipe Night”
Gut Agency, Sao Paulo for Mercado Livre — “Feed Parade”
Edelman London and Asics — “Eternal Run”
Africa DDB, Sao Paulo and House of Lapland — “Salla 2032″
