Focussing on Grand Prix at Cannes maybe skews things slightly: these days they almost never seem to be to a really good ad. The biggest winners tend to be a novel idea, backed up by yards of data.
Adam&eveDDB’s biggest winner (I think) was Harvey Nichols’ ‘Sorry I Spent it on Myself,’ just a perfectly-realised comedy script with a twist. What more do you need? Seemingly more these days and the ads (when you can find them) are much worse.
Grey’s ‘Claustrobars’ campaign for Stella Artois didn’t win a GP (of course) but two Golds in Print and Outdoor. Yes it involved a cast of thousands at Grey but, at heart, it’s a perfectly-realised simple campaign built around outstanding photography (probably not shot on an iPhone) from Ale Burset.
Makes you quite nostalgic.
