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14 articles
INDIAN RAILWAYS | Lucky Yatra | 2025
Fare-dodging was costing Indian Railways $800 million a year. Their answer wasn't tougher enforcement. It was turning tickets into lottery tickets.
Mountain Dew | Play the Dew | 2025
Just by saying "DEW," you can make gunfire, engine roars, explosions — pretty much any sound a game needs. A brand name that doubles as a sound effect? It almost feels too good to be true.
SPECSAVERS | THE MISHEARD VERSION | 2024
They had Rick Astley re-record "Never Gonna Give You Up" with the lyrics deliberately swapped for commonly misheard versions, then released it with no explanation at all. It got 20 million plays in 8 hours. At Cannes it won six Lions and two Grand Prix. It was the first time a PR agency had won the PR Lions Grand Prix on its own.
PETPACE | ANIMAL ALERTS | 2024
Earthquakes can't be predicted, even with today's most advanced science. But dogs might be able to do what science can't. "ANIMAL ALERTS," launched in Lima, Peru, is the world's first early warning system that uses dogs' physical data to predict earthquakes.
ＡCジャパン | 寛容ラップ | 2023
At a convenience store checkout, an old woman fumbles through her coins. A tough-looking rapper starts stomping his foot. Uh oh, you think, bracing for trouble—then he grabs an ice cream bar like a microphone and starts rapping: "Nobody's mad at you. Take all the time you need." A rap battle with no disses—now that's an invention.
SKINNY | Phone It In | 2023
No ad budget? Then let amateurs make the ad. Even better, let your competitor's customers make it. The fact that this kind of shameless move can win the Cannes Lions Grand Prix just goes to show how interesting the world is.
BURGER KING | CONFUSING TIMES | 2020
2020 was a year when everyone felt confused. Burger King made a radio ad that put that exact feeling of confusion into words—things like catching a sneeze with your elbow, then high-fiving with that same elbow. And the twist is, it was actually an ad for the Impossible Whopper, which tastes like meat but isn't meat. Presenting confusion as confusion, honestly, turned out to be the most honest approach of all.
Nescafe | The Dead Hour | 2017
Nobody listens to the radio at half past five in the morning. Nescafe in India zeroed in on exactly that "empty" hour.
GO OUTSIDE MAGAZINE | REPELLENT RADIO | 2012
A radio station in São Paulo secretly mixed a 15kHz tone into its music programming from 6 to 8pm. Humans can't hear it. But mosquitoes can. Since it mimics the sound of a dragonfly's wings—a mosquito's natural predator—the mosquitoes flee. Just by having the radio on, you get bug protection.
BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO BANK | THE MOST POPULAR SONG | 2012
Puerto Rico's biggest hit song was a tune called "I Don't Do Anything" — a song that nationally celebrated not working. This campaign got the very people singing it to rewrite it. That bold move brought Puerto Rico its first-ever Cannes Grand Prix.
7-ELEVEN | KWIK-E-MART | 2008
A real convenience store disguised as a fake convenience store from a cartoon. And not just one store, but twelve. And done in a single night. The side that had been mocked by The Simpsons as a symbol of unhealthy eating put on that insult like a full costume and wore it proudly.
BUD LIGHT | Real Men of Genius - Mr. Hot Dog Eating Contest Contestant | 2007
In 2007, this radio spot from Bud Light's "Real Men of Genius" series paid tribute to competitive hot dog eaters. DDB Chicago turned the sheer resolve it takes to eat 24 hot dogs in 12 minutes into a song that's both ridiculous and full of affection.
LYNX | LYNXjet | 2006
In 2005, a brand-new airline appeared in Australia. Underneath it all, it was really an ad for deodorant. But they built it so seriously that real flight attendants from an actual airline ended up striking over it.
BUDLIGHT | REAL MEN OF GENIUS | 2006
"Bud Light presents... Real Men of Genius." A radio ad series that barely mentioned beer at all ended up running for more than 200 episodes over ten years. And Bud Light still sold.