Emotion
329 articles
BROOKE BOND RED LABEL TEA | 6 PACK BAND | 2016
In 2016, an Indian tea brand teamed up with a transgender band of six. The reason it won the Grand Prix at Cannes comes down to this: the women weren't filmed as people to feel sorry for.
SAVE THE CHILDREN & SANTILLANA | Paper Glasses | 2016
You open your textbook, and there's a pair of glasses waiting for you. They're made of paper, and they can even test your eyesight. It's so simple it's almost moving.
AUSTRALIAN ROAD SAFETY FOUNDATION | Life-Saving Stickers | 2016
Just stickers of children stuck on trash bins. But when 850,000 of them hit the streets every week, that's basically the biggest billboard in town.
ROAD SAFETY AWARENESS CAMPAIGN | SAFE & SOUND MUSIC PLAYER | 2016
For people who love walking while listening to music, there's an app built with one simple wish: that they stay alive.
VOLVO | LIFEPAINT | 2015
All they did was hand out cans of paint, and it brought home two Cannes Grand Prix. This is the story of a reflective spray Volvo made for cyclists in 2015.
HONDA | 試す人になろう | 2015
This ad just seemed to appear out of nowhere. It runs 120 seconds, calmly showing people working at Honda's research facility, nothing more. And yet somehow it has this strange power to make you think, "I want to work here."
Gatorade | Forget Me | 2015
184 goals. Abby Wambach, who holds the record for the most goals scored in international soccer history, men's or women's, retired on December 16 (12/16), 2015. Her final message was "Forget me." Right to the end, Wambach was Wambach.
リクルート | 山田悠子の就職活動 | 2015
A crowd in blue uniforms is shouting "Yamada! Yamada!" at a giant screen, just like soccer fans cheering on Japan's national team. But what's on screen isn't a match — it's Yuko Yamada, in a job-hunting suit, going through her job search. Her awkward face during an interview, getting her ID photo taken — it's all up there on the screen, and the crowd is cheering for every bit of it.
Nike | LAST | 2015
The camera keeps moving backward the whole time. It's graceful, but there's something otherworldly about it too. Set to Aretha Franklin's "Every Little Bit Hurts," that same shot just keeps going.
キユーピー | コンビニエント | 2015
This is an ad for a condiment, but it never says "delicious" or "good for you." The only word it says is "convenient." Mariko Takahashi just stands there on screen, and that's it.
NIKE | JASARI (NIKEiD) - If you were a boy | 2015
Made in Japan, but you'd never guess it. A spot that's NIKE through and through.
Honda | 負けるもんか | 2015
"Effort doesn't pay off. Dreams don't come true. So what?" I still remember how many people this corporate ad moved when it came out. In just 60 seconds, it lines up generations of Honda cars and motorcycles at Twin Ring Motegi, and through them, the spirit of Soichiro Honda comes through as one powerful message.
VOLVO | INTERCEPTION (The Greatest Interception Ever) | 2015
Hijacking the Super Bowl without paying the $4.5 million entry fee. The moment rivals poured $60 million into their own ad slots, Volvo was trending worldwide on Twitter. This is the Cannes Grand Prix winner.
WHAT3WORDS | 3 WORDS TO ADDRESS THE WORLD | 2015
It's not an ad. But it won the Grand Prix at Cannes. In 2015, Nick Law, president of the Innovation jury, called it "the best body of work I've ever seen." That product was what3words.
サントリー天然水 | 信じられる水の山から（阿蘇） | 2015
There's a moment in the middle of a run of commercials when your eyes suddenly stop on one. It feels off, somehow, but in a good way. This is a spot that depicts natural water springing up from a mountain, drawn in soft, gentle animation.
SUUMO | 足跡 | 2015
A 2015 SUUMO commercial starring Yoshinori Okada. A child appears who feels almost like a fairy, yet also completely real, reflecting the father's state of mind. After he asks "Is that true?", the simple reply "It's true, I know it." catches you off guard and brings the tears.
John Lewis | Man On The Moon | 2015
The yearly John Lewis Christmas ad. Just the fact that it's something to look forward to as the weather turns cold already makes it a winner, but the way it consistently exceeds expectations feels almost miraculous.
マルコメ | 料亭の味 カップみそ汁 夜食篇 | 2015
The third animated commercial in the "Ryotei no Aji" series came out in February 2015. A daughter on edge from exam prep, and a father who's lost the knack for talking to her. So late one night, he quietly puts together a midnight snack for her. That's the whole story. And somehow that's exactly what makes it so moving.
Apple | Misunderstood | 2015
I'm seriously obsessed with this one. I can still vividly remember what I felt the first time I watched it. It shows a shy teenage boy who isn't exactly disliked by his family but definitely isn't the center of attention either, acting in his usual unimpressive way. The mood turns slightly sour, with a vibe of "come on, it's Christmas, put the phone down and spend time with the family" — and then the whole thing flips completely around. I love how skillfully it plays with your emotions.
CERVEZA SALTA | TOOTH IMPLANT | 2015
A rugby player loses a tooth during a match. It happens all the time. But this campaign actually implanted a 'tooth that doubles as a bottle opener' in place of the lost one. The surgery, the bottle-opening scene—it's all real. This project won a Titanium Lion at Cannes Lions 2015.
VODAFONE | Between Us | 2015
Some ads are designed to never be found. This is the story of a secret app built to protect women in Turkey from domestic violence.
LEICA | 100 | 2015
100 years ago, Leica took photography "out of the studio." This 2-minute film tells that story through the recreation of 35 iconic photographs. The seamless transitions, the flawless execution, and that provocative narration. The first time I saw it, I forgot to breathe.
ALWAYS | INTIMATE WORDS | 2015
If you don't have the words, you can't describe your symptoms. If you can't describe your symptoms, you can't get diagnosed. The indigenous women of Oaxaca had no words to talk about their own bodies.
JOHN LEWIS | Monty the Penguin | 2015
Every November, the whole of Britain starts getting restless. That's because it's the season when John Lewis's Christmas ad arrives. The star of 2014 was a stuffed penguin named Monty. Why did this two-minute tale of friendship with a boy named Sam strike such a chord?
BAOBEIHUIJIA | Search for Free WiFi, Search for Missing Children | 2015
What if the WiFi network you were about to connect to was named "Help, Find Me"? In China, more than 200,000 children go missing every year, and this was the answer TBWA/Shanghai came up with.
OWLET BABY CARE | Owlet Smart Sock | 2015
A sock measures a baby's heart rate and oxygen level, and sends an alert to a parent's phone if something seems off. It's a product designed by R/GA that won Gold in the Innovation category at Cannes in 2015.
LIGA CONTRA EL CANCER | Shadow WiFi | 2015
On a beach in Peru stands a big blue wall. Get close, and your phone picks up WiFi on its own. But the signal only reaches inside the shadow the wall creates.
NATIONAL SEPTEMBER 11TH MEMORIAL AND MUSEUM | 9/11 Memorial Museum Exhibition Design | 2015
70 feet below Ground Zero, there's a museum. But it's not a "finished" museum. As Jake Barton of Local Projects put it: "It doesn't need to be finished. It can be an experience that keeps changing."
MICROSOFT ONENOTE | Collective Project | 2015
Showing college students an ad just doesn't land. So Microsoft stopped making ads and instead "did" the story of a student trying to change the world.
JOHN LEWIS | The Bear and the Hare | 2015
A bear who sleeps through winter had never once seen Christmas. So his best friend, a hare, gives him an alarm clock so he won't miss it—a story told in just two minutes.
SAKKER EL DEKKENE (STOP THE SHOP) | LEBANON4SALE | 2015
Fighting corruption can feel like a hopeless battle. But an NGO in Lebanon realized something: corruption is a business too. And if it's a business, it can be shut down.
HAMMERHEAD NAVIGATION | HAMMERHEAD ONE | 2015
A "T" shape sitting on your handlebars. This device, named after a shark, handles bike navigation using nothing but light. No phone, no map, no headphones needed. LEDs blinking at the edge of your vision tell you "turn right soon" or "keep going straight." It's so simple that it actually feels brand new.
RED CROSS | SOS SMS | 2015
Just type "*SOS" on your phone's lock screen, and paramedics can instantly pull up your medical conditions and blood type. It sounds small, but that one line can be the difference between life and death.
LIDL | BOSSE’S MILK | 2015
One grumpy guy's name ended up printed on milk cartons all over the country the very next month. Nobody expected a single post to get such a serious response.
Under Armour | I Will What I Want | 2014
A world-famous supermodel punches a sandbag. Kicks it. On the wall behind her, cruel comments people wrote about her appear—and vanish with every hit.
東山堂 | TOSANDO music「披露宴」篇 | 2014
A familiar situation, a familiar song. And yet it makes you cry. There's no surprise twist, no clever trick—so why does it grip your heart so tightly? Because everything lives in the acting and the direction.
Duracell | Moments of Warmth | 2014
Hold hands and the heater turns on—that's all it takes. In the dead of a freezing Montreal winter, this experience landed at exactly the right moment.
TERRES DES HOMMES | SWEETIE | 2014
A 10-year-old girl identified 1,000 sex offenders in 10 weeks. But she doesn't exist. She's a fully computer-generated virtual girl. This is the story of an ad agency that launched its own criminal investigation.
BERGEN INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL BRAND CAMPAIGN | Brand Campaign | 2014
A festival logo built out of "music". And it went on to win the Grand Prix at Cannes. This is the story of Norway's Bergen International Festival, from 2014.
リクルートホールディングス | すべての人生が、すばらしい。 | 2014
A commercial that declares life is a marathon—then immediately sets out to demolish its own metaphor.
キリン | 企業広告「応援する者」篇 | 2014
This commercial, released on June 2, 2014, covers everything from a birth to Shinji Kagawa pulling on the national team's number 10 jersey, all in just two minutes. Only two minutes. But every single second of it is packed with feeling. You might think, what a luxury to tell a story this way—but then again, maybe you need exactly this kind of luxury to get this far. At the edge of the frame, always in the eyeline of whoever is sending their support, is the back of a boy's head, his back, slowly growing up. That's why it's so easy to feel for him.
Always | #LikeAGirl | 2014
When you ask a grown-up to "run like a girl," they flail their arms and legs around and laugh. But ask a girl who hasn't hit puberty yet, and she runs with everything she's got. That gap took my breath away.
NOT IMPOSSIBLE LABS | PROJECT DANIEL | 2014
A 14-year-old boy who'd lost both arms said he'd rather be dead than become a burden to his family. A video producer who read that article flew to Sudan carrying a 3D printer, with no medical knowledge at all.
COCA COLA | A Rainbow for the Rainbow Nation | 2014
In 2014, South Africa marked 20 years since the end of apartheid. Coca-Cola made a rainbow. Not as a figure of speech — they made an actual rainbow appear in the sky over Johannesburg.
RESPIRATORY APP | Alvio | 2014
Kids with asthma hate breathing exercises. But what if your breath itself became the controller for a game? Alvio made a game where a pufferfish swims just by you breathing in and out.
BELDENT INFINIT | Almost Identical | 2014
For decades, there's been a social stigma: "people who chew gum come across badly." But is that actually true? Let's find out. With twins. At a museum. Have one twin chew gum and the other not, stand them side by side, and you'll see which one actually makes the better impression.
AMERICAN HONDA MOTOR | PROJECT DRIVE IN | 2014
You need a car to go to a drive-in theater. That point is so obvious nobody ever says it out loud, but Honda took it seriously.
THE BARBARIAN GROUP | CINDER | 2013
At Cannes Lions 2013, the very first Grand Prix in the newly created Innovation Lions category went to a development tool made by an ad agency. And it's one they give away for free. It sounds like an odd thing to win an award for, but the reasoning behind it makes complete sense.