When a Mainstream Pop Star Speaks About Race / BEYONCE "FORMATION"

The problem

It was released during Black History Month, on what would have been Trayvon Martin's birthday. The jury president described it as "the biggest artist on the planet seriously taking on how we see race and women." The footage weaves together post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, police violence, and Black Lives Matter.

The insight

Director Melina Matsoukas studied records of Black protests and parades throughout history, saying she wanted to show "this is what Black people are: triumphant, suffering, drowning, being beaten, dancing, eating, and still here." The whole thing came together in just a few weeks, moving so fast that treatments sent late at night got replies within hours.

The idea

There's a scene where a boy in a hoodie dances with his hands raised in front of a line of police officers. That hoodie wasn't part of his costume—on the day of the shoot, the boy had simply worn it on his own. Director Matsoukas asked Beyoncé if they could let him keep it on, and Beyoncé, after thinking it over, decided to leave it in as is.

What happened

In 2016, it won the Entertainment Lions for Music Grand Prix, newly established that year as the first Grand Prix in the music category. It was unusual for a piece with no corporate brand behind it to win, and it later became something of an anthem sung at Black Lives Matter and Women's March events.

Afterthought

This is too powerful a piece to just file away as "a pop star getting political." It came down to a small decision—whether to leave in a hoodie a boy happened to wear on his own that day. And decisions like that, piled up one after another, ended up winning the world's biggest advertising award without any corporate backing at all. I feel like I just watched the moment when it really mattered who gets to say what.

Awards

• Cannes Lions Grand Prix 2016

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