CANNES, France—Call them the clumsy blobs that could.
The adorable animated characters from McCann Melbourne's "Dumb Ways to Die" train-safety video dominated the 60th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity here last week, winning a record five Grand Prix—easily eclipsing Tourism Queensland's "Best Job in the World" campaign in 2009, which won three.
"Dumb Ways" won or shared the top prize in Film, Integrated, Direct, PR and Radio—a remarkable accomplishment. It also reeled in a slew of other Lions: five golds and a silver in Cyber; two golds in Radio to go with the Radio Grand Prix; two golds in Promo & Activation; and a gold and a silver Media.
In any other year, the runner-up would have been the main story. Pereira & O'Dell in San Francisco won three Grand Prix, matching "Best Job in the World." Its episodic social-media film "The Beauty Inside" for Toshiba and Intel also won a Film Grand Prix, as well as the top prizes in Cyber and Branded Content & Entertainment.
As a network, Ogilvy & Mather performed well, winning four Grand Prix in total—its São Paulo, Brazil, office in the Titanium and Promo & Activation categories, Paris in Outdoor and Amsterdam in Media.
The U.S. did well, also. In addition to the three Grand Prix that Pereira & O'Dell won, U.S. agencies were also tops in Cyber (Draftfcb for Oreo), Press (TBWA\Media Arts Lab for Apple) and Innovation (The Barbarian Group for a coding platform it developed).
See all the Grand Prix-winning work at the link below, and visit adweek.com/cannes for more on last week's festival.
Gallery: Every Grand Prix Winner from the 2013 Cannes Lions
     |