Wearing out an already worn-out song, one more time / adidas Originals "Original is Never Finished"

The problem

At the time, adidas was losing ground to Nike, but was starting to bounce back thanks to its collaboration with Kanye West. With the numbers trending up and momentum on its side, the brand needed a move that would get at the very core of what it stood for.

The insight

The fastest way to break the assumption that "to be original, something has to be unfinished" is to deliberately pick the most overused song you can find. As CD Wes Phelan put it, precisely because this song has been used over and over, it proves the point that "original is never finished." There's a paradox here: push far enough into the past, and something new comes out the other side.

The idea

Built around Sinatra's "My Way," the 90-second film layers together figures from different generations and different fields, like Snoop Dogg and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Symbols of beauty get rewritten one after another, like Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus" morphing into the cover of Snoop's "Doggystyle." Directed by Terence Neale, it reads as a message to young creators who feel crushed under the weight of the past.

What happened

It aired live on CBS at the best possible moment, right after Beyoncé's performance at the 2017 Grammy Awards. That single move won the Grand Prix in the Entertainment for Music category at Cannes Lions 2017, unanimously.

Afterthought

It's easy to say "wear out something that's already worn out, one more time," but actually pulling it off is a bit insane. Apparently the jury president said something like, "This is a mantra for creativity itself, and it represents what Cannes Lions is all about." Taking someone else's "My Way" and making it your own "My Way." That's really all there is to it.

Awards

• Cannes Lions Grand Prix 2017

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