KIWI, AUSSIE CONNECTION TO CANNES FILM GRAND PRIX

The Cannes Film Grand Prix was awarded to Ogilvy & Mather Toronto for Unilever's Dove Self Esteem Fund ‘Evolution’, written, art directed and co-directed by Aussie expat Adelaide boy Tim Piper. Piper has been working in Canada for the past two and a half years and presented the work to Will Awdri, the global creative director for Dove, based out of Ogilvy & Mather London, who in turn reports to Kiwi expat Malcolm Poynton - ECD of Ogilvy London.
But Australia and New Zealand failed to translate its 30 shortlisted entries for film to significant metal with Australia only winning three Bronze Lions and New Zealand picking up one Silver and two Bronze.
Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland won Silver for DB Breweries Tiger Beer ‘Taste it in this Life’. Bronze Lions were awarded to Colenso BBDO's Frucor’s Frank Beverages ‘Nail’ and Publicis Mojo Auckland for Greenpeace ‘Breathe’.
Australia’s three Bronze Lions were won by George Patterson Y&R Melbourne for Carlton Draught ‘Flash Beer’, DDB Sydney for ‘Children See, Children Do’ and Clemenger BBDO Melbourne for The SCA Hygeine Australia ‘The Folder’ for Absorbent Toilet Paper. (This was counted as a New Zealand win because it was entered by The Sweet Shop, but Campaign Brief is counting it in the Australian tally.)
The jury was queried by the trade press during the announcement of the winner because the category was shifted with it being moved out of the fund raising category to the corporate image category. This is because public service work is not eligible for the Grand Prix, however as jury members pointed out it was still an ad for a cosmetics brand, which is about selling more make-up than saving the world.
Cannes Festival, executive chairman, Terry Savage says that the rule was originally enforced because of a similar debate about a large number of public service work winning Grand Prix with the feeling that the entry bar is lower. With Al Gore in town to encourage agencies to lead the way on endorsing the crisis on climate change sentiment is that this ruling is now out of date. Savage would not commit to
changing the rules, but did say they will be reviewed. Jury president DDB Worldwide creative director Bob Scarpelli says that personally he thinks public service ads should be eligible for the Grand Prix but a request for a show of hands from jury members was rejected by Scarpelli on the grounds it was unfair.
Last year’s Titanium award had the category extended to include integrated following the furor (started by the CB Blog) over a Japanese 'BarCode' handed the only Titanium.
It was a disappointing performance for Asia this year with no Film Golds. The heavily fancied Perfetti Van Melle ‘Happy Dent Palace’ spot from McCann Erickson Mumbai only got a Silver and a Bronze despite it being Asia’s frontrunner for Gold. Last night Trevor Beattie was sporting a t’shirt reading ‘Happydent for Grand Prix’. The other
strong contendor from Asia, the Smooth E Babyface Scrub campaign only had one sport awarded with ‘Materialism’ picking up Bronze.
Overall, Thailand got two Silvers and a Bronze, India a Silver and two Bronzes, and Japan a Bronze.