Last night was the Cannes Lions awards event for Design, Press and Cyber efforts. As always, for the full list of winners, go hithery-dithery. But here are the Grand Prix winners for each category:
For DESIGN: "Paper Battlefield" for Nike Hong Kong by McCann Worldgroup/Causeway Bay.
For PRESS: "We Are Animals," that creepy bejeaned-human-meets-carnal-instinct campaign by FRED & FARID/Paris for Wrangler.
For CYBER: "Best Job in the World" -- which is seriously cleaning up this year -- by Cumminsnitro/Brisbane for Tourism Queensland.
"Eco:Drive" by AKQA/London for Fiat also scored a Cyber Grand Prix, as did "Why So Serious?" for Warner Bros.' The Dark Knight. The latter campaign is a typical piece of elaborate genius by the folks at 42 Entertainment/Pasadena, whose every project is not so much advertising as it is grand oeuvre.
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We literally choked on our Juicy Juice when we saw this guerrilla effort for Hammertime, a new A&E show that follows the family life of MC Hammer -- kinda like Run's House.
"Each week we'll open our home to viewers to showcase the hectic pace of our lives and our eclectic family; our real life truly is drama," said MC Hammer, who apparently thinks drama is a marvel unique to his universe.
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Michael Moore knows exactly how to hit the Inner Unhinged-Rage button. And however biased you feel he is, he addresses you with such a strong sense of complicity -- inflaming all the right wounds -- that the young and virile among us can't help but be swept up by the tide.
Promotional efforts for Save our CEOs, his latest documentary, are no exception. This is a caustic snapshot of how public funds were gleaned to save big fat slow-moving companies -- including the numerous financial institutions whose willful negligence in the loan acquisition process paved the way for your sweeping foreclosures and shortsales.
At theaters in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and DC, audiences got an unedited appeal from Moore himself, asking in a sarcastically compassionate drawl for viewers to donate still more cash to those coffers.
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The Economist brought its dry, mischievous humour and trademark red to Dallas, TX for three days. Fake bulls -- labeled "Real Estate," "401(k)" and "Stock Market," respectively -- were propped up in the middle of an inflatable arena.
Across the bottom of the ring, alongside The Economist logo, is the question: "How long can you stay on?"
Thousands of people apparently saw; a few even tried riding them. You know how those Texans like their meat.
Playful, witty and wildly relevant. By BBDO/NY. Thanks to @haikalsiregar for pointing us to it.
Handbag designer Rachel Nasvik promotes fresh wares with an urban Quest for ladies that lust for free stuff.
96 of her handbags were hidden in public places around NYC, filled with girly things like lip gloss, bobby pins and personalized playlists; as well as a note spouting the campaign manifesto: "You didn't find this bag, this bag found you." Lucky finders can keep 'em.
Rachel's Twitter is loaded with cryptic clues about where the bags can be spotted; her blog also sports images of discovered ones.
Now your second head has an ally: a third eye, right where it counts. To encourage more illicit behaviour in inappropriate places, Brazillian adult site Sexy Clube sent a rear-view mirror to the homes of its customers.
The gooseneck mirror attaches by suction to the back of your monitor. Its purpose is to give you a, uh, heads-up when Bossman is about to catch you in the act of surfing titty. Thus equipped, Sexy Clube hopes it'll stimulate annual subscription renewals.
Probably doesn't help that the back of the mirror reads "Sexy Clube," though. Nothing screams "PORN ADDICT!" like porn merch!
Still, nice effort by DM9DDB/Brazil.
On behalf of the UK Home Office, John Luke Roberts wanders city streets in broad daylight, trying to get people to do things they only do drunk and in the safety of darkness: piss in the street, spew vom over friends, dive into vehicles with strange men and abuse strange girls with traffic cones.
For the most part he fails, but that doesn't stop him from doing it all himself.
Roberts' shenanigans look nothing short of insane, but only because we don't have the Lush Googles on. After the guy belts out a war cry and shoves a trash bin through a store window, we're graced with a simple enough tagline: "If you wouldn't do it sober...", tying it to last year's effort, similarly (though less ambiguously) titled "You Wouldn't Do It Sober."
Harrowing shit, seeded by Team Rubber.
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Based on the premise that people are more likely to watch a play if they know somebody in it, agency Happy Soldiers added a new scene to Spirithouse Theatre Company's play, "Vigil."
Spirithouse is a fairly new indy theatre company in Australia. "Prelude to Vigil," the new scene, takes five minutes and requires a fresh and local casting call every week. Spirithouse says this was a first for an independent play group.
Kind of a neat approach to (not?) advertising: personalizing an entire performance, and stimulating engagement, which in turn serves to generate word of mouth and record attendance. Apparently the play sold out in every instance.
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@dabitch and @leighhouse graced our morningtime desks with this rabbit rubbish bin. The bins are designer Paul Smith's contribution to Super Contemporary, an exhibit that launched at London's Design Museum this week.
The "New London Rubbish Bins" will solicit garbage over the next four months at Covent Garden and Holland Park. Ears light up when you toss a little something-something into their sacks.
More photos at High Snobiety.
Good way to bring design character to a city and reward constructive community behaviour. Here's hoping no malevolent clothes irons appear over the horizon.
In time for allergy season -- which not only stimulates sneezes but generates impromptu tear-duct leakage -- Kleenex erected a Tissue Tree, swathed in silk, no less, beside Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art.
The tree was inspired by the work of "wrapping" artist Christo and is wrapped in over a kilometer of silk. (See metric conversion here.) More importantly, it sports 700 generous tissue blossoms, which passersby can tug out at leisure.
Clever way to promote Kleenex Silk Touch, whose wares are supposed to be even softer than the average snot receptacle. Greenpeace is gonna have a helluva good time tearing the lovely idea a new one, though. We can already hear the siren song: Turning your gauche synthetic wares into fake spins on the noble arbors that fell for your cause? You sick bastards!
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