Cannes-do guy.

Here's a few things that tickled me in the 2015 Cannes Lions. These are very personal choices (a couple of them didn't actually win). But just thought I'd share as a sort of 'state of the advertising nation' right now. First up I love this. It was my favourite thing in the entire show. Neo nazis march in Germany every year and there's no legal way to prevent it. But why prevent it, when you can sponsor it? For every metre the nazis walked, a donation went to anti fascist causes. Presenting them with the dilemma - they either cancel their march, or walk and raise money against their cause. Genius.

 


So we worked on the WWF student brief. This idea had been entered, which has the creatures that will actually benefit from your donation thanking you in person. Nice enough.

 


In possibly the only light note of a very self important festival, here's an idea that for once means none of us are wankers for participating.

 


Here's one of those ideas that won nowt. I had a discussion with my bosses who said the case study let it down by being a bit dull. But the high concept is great. Prove how fast public transport is in Oslo by using it as a pizza delivery service.




I don't think this scored either but it's another great, simple product demo. Buy clothes. Get them filthy in amusing ways. Wash them in Radiant (detergent) and see if you can get the shop to take them back as an unworn return...




This one is incredibly powerful. To raise awareness for the African water crisis, this lady was entered into a French marathon. And just walked it with a container on her head and a sign saying 'I walk this far for water every day.' There were runners applauding her as they went past.




And here's the true state of modern comms. This started as social media disaster. A brand spokesman for Chevy dried up on live tv and could only mumble that their new vehicle had "class leading... technology... and stuff." Within seconds, he was being lambasted across twitter.

But within the hour, the brand (or rather their agency) very cleverly threw out all their carefully crafted headlines and endlines. And went with it, rebranding the entire campaign as - The new Chevy, with #technologyandstuff.

CLICK THIS LINK TO SEE THE CASE STUDY PAGE
An analyst reckoned the exposure created by the televised gaffe was worth $2.4 million to the brand.


On a final note, one of the campaigns that scooped the Grand Prix night after night was the Ice Bucket challenge. Interestingly, this didn't come from an agency. Just some ordinary people trying to raise awareness for family members and friends suffering from a disease. It became a global phenomenon. And it was humbling and moving to see a bunch of everyday folk being given a standing ovation and cheered by an auditorium packed with the great and the good of worldwide advertising (er, and me).