CANNES, France—Doing good things for others has been a major theme at Cannes Lions this year. Ironically, though, the festival's single biggest winner did precisely the opposite. It comically celebrated selfishness.
adam&eveDDB picked up an Integrated Grand Prix and a Film Grand Prix here tonight for Harvey Nichols' "Sorry, I Spent It on Myself," the darkly amusing 2013 holiday campaign that advertised cheap gifts you could buy for friends and family so you could spend more on yourself.
The campaign had already won Grand Prix in Press and in Promo & Activation, and so its total Grand Prix haul is four. That puts it in second place all time for Grand Prix wins, trailing only last year's smash hit, "Dumb Ways to Die" from McCann Melbourne, which won five.
"It expands the way we use advertising," Titanium & Integrated jury president Prasoon Joshi of McCann Worldgroup India said of the Harvey Nichols work.
"To take greed and make people laugh and smile about it is, I think, incredibly difficult. And as a film, it's a perfect piece of film," said Film juror Pete Favat of Deutsch/LA.
There were two other Grand Prix winners in the Film Lions and Titanium & Integrated Lions categories.
Forsman & Bodenfors won a Grand Prix in Film for "The Epic Split," its super-viral spot for Volvo Trucks starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. (The "Live Test Series" work also won a gold Lion in Titanium & Integrated.)
And Dentsu in Tokyo won the Titanium Grand Prix for its "Sound of Honda/Ayrton Senna 1989" work. That campaign took the driving data from Ayrton Senna's famous 1989 Formula 1 qualifying lap and reproduced it in a stunning installation of light and sound.
"It kind of had everything," Film juror Al Mosely of 180 Amsterdam said of "Epic Split." "It had the product really at the heart of the story. It was a fantastic demo, but it was more than that. It was a sort of spiritual meditation. It has been the most successful piece of film over the past 12 months."
"Here is an idea that converts boring data, dry data, into emotional data," Joshi said of Honda's Ayrton Senna campaign. "It connects with you at a human level. It's very difficult to do something like that."
Asked whether "Epic Split" was considered for the Titanium Grand Prix, Titanium & Integrated juror Anselmo Ramos of Ogilvy Brazil said: "At the core it's a product demo, and it's really well done. We think it's not necessarily pushing the industry forward like a Titanium winner should do."
The U.S. fared well in both Titanium & Integrated and Film. See recaps of the rest of the action in both categories below.
—TITANIUM & INTEGRATED LIONS
The U.S. won two Titanium Lions, along with a silver Lion and three bronze Lions in this combined category.
The Titanium Lions went to The Ebeling Group/Not Impossible Labs for its "Project Daniel" work in 3-D printing prosthetic limbs for injured children in Sudan; and to Grey New York for its "Unload Your 401K" anti-gun campaign.
Droga5 won a silver and a bronze for Newcastle Brown Ale's "If We Made It" and Prudential's "Chapter Two," respectively. CAA Marketing in Los Angeles and Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, Ore., won bronze for Chipotle's "The Scarecrow" and Old Spice's hair-care campaign.
Here is some of what the jurors had to say about some of the other winning work:
On Memac Ogilvy's "Autocomplete Truth" for UN Women:
"That's another idea that's very simple, but it shakes you. It jolts you." —Prasoon Joshi
On The Ebeling Group/Not Impossible Labs' "Project Daniel":
"Villages that have been war-torn were able to create their own prosthetic arms for $100. It's one of those ideas that changes lives and is conscious of doing it in a way that's sustainable and not expensive." —Kevin Brady of Droga5
On Grey New York's "Unload Your 401K":
"A lot of what you see from advertising or advergood, if you will, is about creating awareness. This actually gave people a solution, a way to deal with it. As someone who sits in a publicly held company, I realize that's a hell of a big idea." —Gaston Legorburu of SapientNitro
Below are are all the winners in Titanium & Integrated:
• Dentsu Tokyo - Sound Of Honda/Ayrton Senna 1989 - Honda Motor Co. - Titanium Grand Prix
• adam&eveDDB London - Sorry I Spent It On Myself - Harvey Nichols - Integrated Grand Prix
• Memac Ogilvy Dubai - The Autocomplete Truth - UN Women - Titanium Lion
• The Ebeling Group New York/Not Impossible Labs Venice - Project Daniel: 3D Printing Prosthetic Arms For Children Of War-Torn Sudan - Titanium Lion
• Grey New York - Unload Your 401K - States United to Prevent Gun Violence - Titanium Lion
• Forsman & Bodenfors Gothenburg - Live Test Series Integrated Campaign - Volvo Trucks - Gold Lion
• Leo Burnett Paris - If Only For a Second - Mimi Foundation - Silver Lion
• Droga5 New York - If We Made It - Newcastle Brown Ale - Silver Lion
• adam&eveDDB London - Bear & Hare - John Lewis - Bronze Lion
• BVH Identity Driven Advertising Rotterdam - Do Not Frighten President Putin - Amnesty International The Netherlands - Bronze Lion
• Droga5 New York - Chapter Two - Prudential - Bronze Lion
• Creative Artists Agency Los Angeles - The Scarecrow - Chipotle Mexican Grill - Bronze Lion
• Wieden + Kennedy Portland - Old Spice Hair Care Integrated Campaign - Bronze Lion
—FILM LIONS
The U.S. won seven golds in Film, along with eight silvers and 14 bronzes.
Wieden + Kennedy fared the best among U.S. agencies, picking up three golds (for Southern Comfort, Old Spice and Nike), two silvers (for Old Spice and Procter & Gamble) and two bronzes (for Nike and P&G).
The other U.S. golds went to BBH New York (for Sony PlayStation's "Perfect Day"), Durable Goods in Los Angeles (for Wren's viral "First Kiss" video), Barton F. Graf 9000 in New York (for "Climate Name Change") and DDB New York (for WaterIsLife's "Bucket List").
See all the U.S. winners here:
• Wieden + Kennedy New York - Shampoo, Karate - Southern Comfort - Gold Lion Campaign
• Wieden + Kennedy Portland - Momsong, Tree, Bowl - Old Spice - Gold Lion Campaign
• Wieden + Kennedy Portland - Possibilities - Nike - Gold Lion
• BBH New York - Perfect Day - Sony PlayStation - Gold Lion
• Durable Goods Los Angeles - First Kiss - Wren - Gold Lion
• Barton F. Graf 9000 New York - Climate Name Change - 350 Action - Gold Lion
• DDB New York - Bucket List - WaterIsLife - Non-Profit - Gold Lion
• Wieden + Kennedy Portland - Meeting, Boardwalk - Old Spice - Silver Lion Campaign
• Deutsch Los Angeles - Feeling Carefree - Volkswagen - Silver Lion
• Deutsch Los Angeles - Guess Who Loves Taco Bell's New Breakfast, Waffle Taco, A.M. Crunchwrap - Taco Bell - Silver Lion Campaign
• Conill Saatchi & Saatchi Torrance/Conill Advertising El Segundo - Robocop - Argentina New Cinema Film Festival - Silver Lion
• TBWA\Media Arts Lab Los Angeles - Misunderstood - Apple - Silver Lion
• Wieden + Kennedy Portland - Tough Love - Procter & Gamble - Silver Lion
• Opperman Weiss New York - The Parting Glass - Tullamore Dew Irish Whiskey - Silver Lion
• SS+K New York - Appreciation, What's He In, Your Choice, Faithful, Unconditional Love, Happily Married - BHO Go - Silver Lion Campaign
• CP+B Boulder - Comb Over - Jello - Jello - Bronze Lion
• DDB Chicago - Smile, Cloud, Groomer, Vet - Skittles - Bronze Lion Campaign
• BBDO New York - All Is Right - Foot Locker - Bronze Lion
• Barton F. Graf 9000 New York - Cast - Little Caesars - Bronze Lion
• CP+B Boulder - Captain Obvious, Obvious Eye Contact, Obvious Lies - Hotels.com - Bronze Lion Campaign
• BBH New York - Greatness Awaits - Sony PlayStation - Bronze Lion
• Biscuit Filmworks Los Angeles/Wieden + Kennedy Portland - Covert - Nike Golf - Bronze Lion
• Discovery Channel Silver Spring - Snuffy /Shark Week - Bronze Lion
• MJZ Los Angeles / Grey New York - Soup, Fisherman, Butterflies - DirecTV - Bronze Lion Campaign
• Wieden + Kennedy Portland - Pick Them Back Up - Procter & Gamble - Bronze Lion
• TBWA\Media Arts Lab Los Angeles - Intention - Apple - Bronze Lion
• Droga5 New York - If We Made It - Newcastle Brown Ale - Bronze Lion Campaign
• Deutsch Los Angeles - The Backstory - Guess Who's Coming To Breakfast - Taco Bell - Bronze Lion
• Venables Bell & Partners San Francisco - Look Inside: Jack Andraka, Mick Ebeling, Erik Weihenmayer - Intel - Bronze Lion Campaign