FEATURE
Reading through the Grand Prix records in order, from the very first in 1954 to 2022
In the records of advertising awards, there's always one entry marked "first." This feature gathers only those entries, lined up in the order they appeared, from 1954 all the way to 2022. The opening entry is on a different scale entirely. It's a stop-motion toothpaste ad that rose above 187 entries at the very first advertising film festival, held in Venice—this is the first Grand Prix the award itself ever gave out. The remaining seven entries each carry a country name attached, like "first in the UK" or "first in Portugal." Among them is a calypso animation that sang to farmers in West Africa about putting money into savings, and a project where a newspaper even built a reality show to search for a national leader. Placed last is a book from 2022 that became a bestseller by covering over a fascist-era constitution with blue pencil illustrations.
8 articles
CHLORODONT TOOTHPASTE | 1954
In 1954, at the first advertising film festival held in Venice, this piece rose to the top of 187 entries. At this festival, which would later become Cannes Lions, "Il Circo" won the very first Grand Prix.
BARCLAYS BANK | 1956
This is the first British ad to win the Grand Prix at Cannes, back in 1956. It's called "Put Una Money For There." It's a three-minute animated ad built around a calypso sung in pidgin English (simplified English), urging West African farmers to "put the money from your harvest into Barclays Bank." Ba-ba-ba-boom. That tune is impossible to shake, and when you remember this was 1956, it's pretty wild.
ROHM UND HAAS CHEMISCHE FABRIK | 1965
1965. A transparent sheet of acrylic became an animated king and took home the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival — a first for Germany. The idea of handing a material's own qualities — transparency, durability, workability — to a character and building the whole ad around it still feels completely alive with 60s energy, practically spilling off the screen.
MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL | 1982
1982: the moment Japanese advertising first won the Grand Prix at Cannes Lions. Matsushita Electric Industrial—now Panasonic—made this piece together with Hakuhodo. A historic work from more than 40 years ago.
NIKE | 2004
It starts with a news story that sounds made up: lightning strikes the statue of a bear on Madrid's coat of arms, and it comes to life and runs off. That's how this campaign begins—and it ended up winning Spain's first Cannes Lions Grand Prix in Digital.
THE TIMES OF INDIA NEWSPAPER | 2008
At Cannes Lions 2008, India's first-ever Grand Prix didn't go to a drink or a car, but to a newspaper. And it wasn't just an ad campaign, either. It was the story of a newspaper that seriously tried to raise up the country's next leaders.
SINYI REALTY | 2020
A real estate brand film running 7 minutes and 23 seconds made all of Taiwan cry. And it won Taiwan's first-ever Grand Prix in Cannes advertising history. The courage of a real estate company that showed no properties at all, instead talking entirely about "the fear of marriage" - that's thrilling.
PENGUIN BOOKS | 2022
Portugal's first-ever Cannes Lions Grand Prix. And it won out of 1,058 entries. The moment I watched the video, I knew this was a win that had to happen. The sheer intensity of watching a blue pencil cover over the constitution, page by page, is something else.
Fictional People Started Working
Five people who don't exist — and reality answered back anyway.
Ads That Reached Into the Law
Breaking rules, slipping through loopholes, rewriting statutes — eight ads, ordered by how far they reached.
Alone, You Can't Reach It
An ad that isn't finished until one more person shows up.
What Was Already There Became the Medium
From chalk to banknotes: 11 media nobody had to buy
The Product Is Nowhere to Be Seen
How choosing not to show became the boldest statement of all
Putting 'We're Broke' Right at the Center of the Idea
Six ads that turned a shortfall into the raw material itself