Two days into the annual week-long Cannes Lions advertising awards festival, Canadian firms have scored a handful of trophies for their work, but it is the American agencies that are taking home most of the Grand Prix nods.
Grey Vancouver picked up a Gold Lion on Monday for a quirky direct marketing piece promoting the sound engineering firm GGRP, a record player made of cardboard. Leo Burnett has a silver and bronze for its outdoor and direct mail work for James Ready beer, while TBWA\Vancouver and BBDO Toronto also picked up bronzes on Tuesday.
Still, the few big winners include TBWA\LA, which drew praise for its Gatorade public relations campaign that staged rematches of amateur sports events that ended prematurely.
And, proving that in advertising it can be smart to be stupid, New York's Anomaly won a Grand Prix on Tuesday for its Diesel clothing billboard campaign encouraging young people to "be stupid" and engage in daft activities.
Simon Houpt