Commercials worth watching
Cannes Lions Festival: the Olympics of advertising
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/12/2019 (2140 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Commercials have been the bane of my television-watching experience.
As a millennial of indeterminate age, most of my young life was spent watching TV. To me, commercials were nothing more than mandatory, unwanted bathroom breaks that existed solely to ruin my favourite TV shows.
Early morning reruns of Saved by the Bell? Ruined. Clandestine late-night reruns of The X-Files? Ruined. Shame-watching episodes of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody in the student lounge at school? Extremely ruined.
This struggle continued until I discovered other ways to satiate my TV addiction: first Napster, then torrents and finally streaming. It was a magical time, those early days of the internet. Suddenly, I could watch anything I wanted to, uninterrupted.
But those days were short-lived. Darkness fell upon the internet, for soon enough the advertising executives and marketing teams found me and began their great and terrible work once more. These days, I feel more surrounded by advertising than ever.
Except this time, the ads are actually really good, and you can see the best of the best of them at the 2019 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, shown at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.
The Cannes Lions Festival is sort of the Olympics of advertising, and a Cannes Lion is one of the most prestigious awards a commercial can win. The festival is held annually on the French Riviera in Cannes, France, and attracts audiences from all over the world, including film and television elites such as Kerry Washington, Jeff Goldblum and Saturday Night Live executive producer Lorne Michaels.
It’s been going strong since 1954 and prides itself on being a driving force not only for business, but for change. This may sound far-fetched if you grew up watching Jesse Eisenberg’s sister sell you Pepsi — her name is Hallie, by the way — but a few commercials into the screening, it wasn’t difficult to understand why the festival attracts creative people from around the world: at the Cannes Lions Festival, advertising is truly an art form.
Not only are the ads as creative and well-made as any feature film could hope to be, they are also politically relevant, tackling contemporary issues such as cyberbullying, LGBTTQ+ rights, toxic masculinity and immigration through diverse and compassionate perspectives.
The 110-minute screening features a list of Bronze, Silver, Gold and Grand Prix winners from the categories of Film and Film Craft Lions. The Film Lions celebrate ads in the category of communication, while Film Craft Lions celebrate exceptional artistry and technical skill in filmmaking.
Standouts from Film Craft Lions include First Christmas, a touching story of a lonely animated porcupine struggling to connect with the world around them that simultaneously served to promote an Austrian bank, and Boys Don’t Cry, a moving reflection on toxic masculinity and its impact on a new generation of men.
https://youtu.be/ms4YxTkBGr4
Sprite’s I Love You Hater, which won a Bronze Lion in the Film category, emphasized the power of kindness to overcome hate, while Monica Lewinsky’s #defythename did the same in an extremely personal way, reframing a famous scandal in a new light with new understanding.
In a festival with an overarching theme of social justice, it’s not surprising that the New York Times took home the Grand Prix awards in both Film Craft and Film. The newspaper’s five provocative, powerful ads — Resolve (Myanmar), Fearlessness (Isis), Rigor (taxes), Courage (Mexican spyware) and Perseverance (immigration) — illuminate the important stories it brings to light.
https://youtu.be/PZJdKuTRN5E
Beyond the powerful messages of social justice, the reel also highlights the enormous power of short-form storytelling. In an era where our methods of communication are increasingly succinct, being able to tell a story in a short amount of time is vital, and this highlight reel of the 2019 Cannes Lions Festival winners shows us all how it’s done.
frances.koncan@freepress.mb.ca
Twitter: @franceskoncan
