Advertising Marathon 2017

Another year has passed, and here we are again with the analysis of the Cannes and El Sol advertising festivals. This year, the main novelty is that the successor channel to Canal+ has not compiled the best of these festivals into an Advertising Marathon, as it had been doing for over 20 years (my collection of recorded advertising marathons starts in 1997). But that is not a problem for us. This summer, when I discovered that #0 was not going to continue the tradition, I decided to compile a selection of the award-winning advertisements from both festivals myself, including the Cannes festival ads that, although not awarded, received a mention and stood out to me for their originality.

This is a low-quality version, but I have uploaded a higher-resolution video on YouTube, which also includes English subtitles.

Now that this introduction is complete, let’s get to work and begin the analysis. We start with the Cannes festival and its Grand Prix winner, a piece by Blink Productions and Channel 4, the British television channel, announcing its broadcast of the Rio de Janeiro Paralympic Games.

Channel 4 is a British public channel that does not belong to the BBC and is characterised firstly by its polished image and secondly by a slight boldness (they might broadcast a live autopsy of a corpse or have Jon Snow following Theresa May). These two traits are always present in their promotional ads and, of course, are not lacking in the Grand Prix-winning spot: an extraordinary choreography of athletes and artists with disabilities, perfectly capable, set to the music of Sammy Davis Jr.’s “Yes I Can.” A great idea, perfectly executed, and a well-deserved winner of the best advertisement of the year worldwide. By the way, if you liked it, don’t miss what the Blink Productions-Channel 4 duo has created this year to promote the most important programme on British television: The Great British Bake Off, the competition-religion that crowns the UK’s best amateur baker.

After this stunning piece, we continue with the analysis of the selected works from the festival and travel to Egypt, where the Silver Lion was awarded to the Cairo-based agency FP7/CAI and Coca-Cola. Following the turbulence of the years after the Arab Spring, Egyptians did not know the players of their national football team, which had been absent from international competitions for six years. Coca-Cola seized the opportunity to score a goal and created the following commercial, one of my favourites, where a group of ping-pong and Coca-Cola enthusiasts chant the names of the national team players. Catchy song, naïve aesthetic… I am sure Egyptians will not forget this ad for a long time.

Another extravagant award-winning advertisement (a Gold Lion, no less) comes from Thailand and uses the country’s corrupt police culture to explain how a weight-loss supplement works. No small feat.

In sports advertising, there isn’t much to highlight; not much creativity is seen in this area. Nike, Adidas, Reebok, and now Under Armour continue to produce the same advertising seen in the 90s, whether it is people playing sports in a polished, music-driven ad with plenty of famous athlete cameos or encouraging sedentary people to fully equip themselves with their brand’s gear and get moving. So predictable that I won’t bother adding the video. However, in the electronics section, the Brazilians at Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi have returned to the Cannes festival with a new masterpiece that completely reinvents how Leica cameras are marketed.

In this section, there is also an ad selected at the festival that did not win a Lion but that I liked a lot. It’s this piece by Apple for its iPhone, produced by MJZ, directed by Fredrik Bond, and filmed at the Montjuïc Municipal Pool in Barcelona:

Another perfectly executed advertisement by MJZ (during their fantastic 2016) is this spot for Kenzo, which won a Silver Lion. Roll the video.

I think it’s impossible to see Margaret Qualley dancing to “Mutant Brain” by Sam Spiegel and Ape Drums feat. Assassin and not immediately think of Fatboy Slim’s “Weapon of Choice” music video, featuring Christopher Walken dancing similarly in a shopping mall. The connection is clear: the director of both videos is the same person—filmmaker and Sam Spiegel’s brother, Spike Jonze. Undoubtedly, this masterpiece (already being crudely imitated by pop stars) raises the bar for perfume advertising, finally moving away from showing a simple woman doing something ridiculous just because she wants to smell nice.

In the NGOs and social content category, this year has seen two interesting pieces after a long dry spell, despite this being one of the easiest categories to be original or even transgressive. This one by BBDO New York is the first (Gold Lion):

And this one by DDB New York is the second (Silver Lion):

Two ads that beautifully execute their ideas and leave you with goosebumps or a lump in your throat, which is precisely the point.

Finally, let’s talk a bit about the El Sol Festival. I left it for the end because, honestly, there wasn’t much worth mentioning at the event. In Spain, we still have the lottery ad, whose biggest prize remains sharing it (let’s see how much longer they can stretch that idea). This year, the Grand Prize goes to Argentina with a Quilmes campaign featuring Ricardo Darín, which, frankly, I do not think deserves the award:

To top it off, what might be my favourite campaign of 2017 only received a Bronze Sol, despite being awarded at Cannes and possibly being the first original idea in national tourism advertising since Joan Miró created his sun for Turespaña. Well, maybe I am exaggerating, as they have essentially applied traditional Argentine advertising humour to the usual tourism campaign formula—featuring a man, a woman, or a couple walking through a country, having unique experiences, and engaging with cheerful locals. However, I genuinely believe it brings a refreshing change to this typically rigid genre. Here are the two ads:

And that’s all. It’s worth noting that the ‘Acquired Idea from Social Media 2017’ award remains vacant—perhaps because the jurors finally got serious and stopped rewarding plagiarists, or because creatives have been more honest. Let’s hope it stays that way.