MAA Ad of the Week: Cannes Lions Film Craft GP winner Penny by Serviceplan

Winning ads are a rarity at Cannes these days, Grand Prix and other Lions are almost exclusively the preserve of cause-related stunts. They might as well be in an enlarged Outdoor category. How Mars Petcare’s (estimable) ‘Hope Reef’ can win a Media Grand Prix only the jury knows (you can see it from space it seems, yes but…)

Maybe they ought to rebrand the Festival from one celebrating creativity to the Cannes Lions Festival of Ingenuity.

The Film Craft Grand Prix though has to be an ad doesn’t it? Don’t count your chickens, someone will find a way of awarding otherwise. This year it is though, Serviceplan’s ‘The Wish’ for German retailer Penny.

It’s a rather Teutonic tale of the impact of lockdown (remember that?) with mum telling her son she wishes he’d had the chance to do all those annoying things that teenies got up to more usual times. Directed by Marcus Ibanez for Iconoclast.

German retailers seem to love these long drawn-out angsty numbers, especially at Christmas. But if this is your thing, it could hardly be done better: casting, acting, lovely film quality, it’s all there.