2008 Best Advertising
Microsoft, Cadbury Win Top Film Awards at Cannes International Fest
The 2008 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival featured the annual event's first competition between television and Internet commercials and they both came away with Grand Prix film awards. Microsoft won a Grand Prix with an Internet video and Cadbury Dairy Milk of London won with a TV commercial.
The Microsoft entry was produced by the McCann WorldGroup and T.A.G., both of San Francisco. The film is part of an integrated multimedia campaign for Microsoft’s XBOX 36/’Halo 3’ video game. The film segment features two veterans discussing a weapon used in a previous war. The campaign, which also won a Grand Prix in the Integrated Category, has helped Microsoft to sell nearly 10 million copies of the game.
Fallon Wins with "Gorilla"
The Fallon agency of London produced the 90-second Cadbury Dairy Milk commercial for the company’s chocolate product. It is titled "Gorilla" and features a gorilla listening moodily to a recording of Phil Collins’ 1980s classic "In The Air Tonight." As the music approaches its end, the gorilla begins playing a set of drums in tune to the crashing climax. USA Today reported that the commercial had been viewed more than 10 million times on YouTube.
The commercial, which has no voices, ends with a brief view of the Cadbury chocolate logo, the only product mention in the spot.
Forsman & Bodenfors of Gothenburg, Sweden, won a Grand Prix for its creative campaign on behalf of AMF Pension Funds. It produced videos showing how Swedish celebrities would look as senior citizens. Then young adults were invited to send their own pictures and received responses showing how they might look as seniors. About 322,000 pictures were sent. The unique picture campaign was accompanied by appropriate pension fund copy.
BBDO Named Top Agency
BBDO of New York, which won 10 awards, was named Agency of the Year at the festival in Cannes, France. It captured two Grand Prix Integrated Promotional Campaign awards for its work on behalf of the new HBO Voyeur film series.
AlmapBBDO of Sao Paul was second in the best agency rankings and DDB of London was third.
BBDO won the agency network of the year award. It was followed by DDB and Saatchi & Saatchi.
Proctor & Gamble Top Advertiser
The Advertiser of the Year trophy was presented to Procter & Gamble and accepted by A.G. Lafley, Chairman & CEO and Jim Stengel, Global Marketing Officer of Procter & Gamble, in honor of P&G’s continued creative and innovative advertising.
The Cannes competition drew an estimated 28,000 ads from advertisers in 85 countries. It attracted more than 10,000 ad writers, artists, photographers, directors, producers, ad agencies, students and sponsors to the French Riveria for the ad industry’s most prestigious international event.
The "Lion" awards presented in 10 categories are compared to the film industry’s "Oscar" awards.
References:
Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival Website
USA Today June 23, 2008
2007 Cannes International Ad Festival
