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OREO | OREO COWS | 2026
A cow became a thousand taglines / OREO "OREO COWS"
A black-and-white photo of a cow that looks like nothing but an Oreo. A hundred years of what the brand has been saying, wrapped up in a single image.
Subject
culture
28 articles
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LVMH | THE PARTNERSHIP THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING | 2025
No Logos on the Field, So They Dressed the Whole Country Instead / LVMH "THE PARTNERSHIP THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING"
The Olympics doesn't let brands put logos in the competition areas. LVMH paid 150 million euros, and instead of placing a logo anywhere, it chose to become the Games themselves.
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PARIS 2024 | Olympic Games Opening Ceremony | 2025
The Day the Olympics Ditched the Stadium and Became the City Itself / PARIS 2024 "Olympic Games Opening Ceremony"
No stadium for the opening ceremony. Instead, the stage was 6 kilometers of the Seine River. On 7/26/2024, the athletes traveled down the river on 160 boats. 300,000 people stood along the banks, and 1.5 billion were watching on TV.
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ERRATA AT 88 - | Errata at 88 | 2024
At 88, a woman finally took the stage she'd been owed for 60 years / Johnnie Walker "Errata at 88"
In 1962, a legendary concert at Carnegie Hall introduced bossa nova to the world. One of its founders, Alaíde Costa, wasn't on that stage. Now 88 years old, she finally got to stand there.
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DOVE | CODE MY CROWN | 2024
"We Make Games, But Hair Isn't One of Them" / DOVE "CODE MY CROWN"
85% of Black gamers say they don't see their own hair represented in video games. Dove's response wasn't an ad—it was a 200-page technical guide.
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HEINZ | IT HAS TO BE HEINZ | 2024
"Even AI says Heinz": how a 150-year-old brand proved its strength / HEINZ "IT HAS TO BE HEINZ"
Ask an AI to draw ketchup, and a Heinz bottle shows up on its own. Ask a person, same result. Behind the scenes at restaurants, fake ketchup gets refilled into Heinz bottles. The work that spent five years collecting proof of this blindingly obvious fact won the Creative Effectiveness Grand Prix at Cannes in 2024.
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一般社団法人ABJ | STOP! 海賊版「ありがとう、君の漫画愛。」 | 2022
From director Kodama to Vaundy: how skipping the ad agency opened a door / ABJ "Thank You for Loving Manga"
I cried so hard it hurt. That was my first reaction, and it still is.
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森ビル | DESIGNING TOKYO | 2022
Traveling 58 years in two minutes, from 1956 to 2014 / Mori Building "DESIGNING TOKYO"
In two minutes and five seconds, it travels back through 58 years. From Nishi-Shimbashi in 1956 to Toranomon Hills in 2014, six Mori Building projects are stitched together as if in a single continuous shot. Sayoko Yamaguchi, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Takashi Murakami all drift onto the screen looking just as they did at the time. At some point you stop caring whether it's CG or real footage.
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BMW | NOTHING BUT SHEER JOY | 2022
The Courage Not to Make You Cry / BMW "NOTHING BUT SHEER JOY"
Chinese Lunar New Year ads have a go-to formula: a long, tearjerking drama about family reunions. In 2022, BMW threw that formula out completely. Ninety seconds, relentlessly upbeat, without a single tear. Choosing not to make people cry actually takes real nerve.
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OLD TOWN ROAD FT. BILLY RAY CYRUS | Old Town Road (Official Movie) | 2020
Riding a Horse Straight Through the Fence of Genre / Lil Nas X "Old Town Road (Official Movie) ft. Billy Ray Cyrus"
A 20-year-old college dropout bought a beat for 30 dollars and wrote a song over it in a single day. That song was "Old Town Road." The official music video went on to win the Grand Prix in Entertainment Lions for Music at Cannes in 2021.
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SPINNEYS THE LEBANESE BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION | THE BREAD EXAM | 2020
Baking bread can save a life / SPINNEYS "THE BREAD EXAM"
The motion of kneading bread dough and the motion of a breast self-exam. They turned out to be nearly identical. That one observation was enough to break through a cultural taboo.
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LOUVRE ABU DHABI | Highway Gallery | 2018
Turning a Desert Highway into the World's First Gallery / Louvre Abu Dhabi "Highway Gallery"
You're driving down a desert highway when the radio suddenly starts explaining Van Gogh. Outside your window: a giant "self-portrait." What Louvre Abu Dhabi pulled off was basically a free sample of an entire museum.
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Joburg Ballet | Breaking Ballet | 2018
The madness of turning ballet into breaking news in 3 to 5 days / Joburg Ballet "Breaking Ballet"
A lot of millennials saw ballet as old-fashioned. Swan Lake and Shakespeare are wonderful, sure, but to young people in Johannesburg, it felt like "an art form that has nothing to do with me." To flip that perception, a ballet company did something bold: it turned the trends on social media themselves into ballet.
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MINISTRY OF PUBLIC HEALTH AFGHANISTAN | IMMUNITY CHARM | 2017
Why the Judges Called It the "Ultimate Wearable" / Ministry of Public Health Afghanistan "IMMUNITY CHARM"
When I heard a beaded bracelet won the Grand Prix, I didn't quite get it at first. But the judges called it the "ultimate wearable," and eight of the top ten entries that year were this one piece of work.
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EXPEDIA | Visit Britain | 2017
Just tilt your phone to travel across all of Britain / Expedia "Visit Britain"
Tilt your phone north and you're in Scotland. Tilt it west and you're in Wales. A video experience where the direction you tilt decides your destination.
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湖池屋 | スゴーンなダンス | 2017
That Legend Returns After 29 Years / Koikeya "Sugo-n na Dance"
Do you remember that ballroom dance commercial Masahiko Sato made back in 1988? With its catchy jingle, it was a legendary ad that swept through the era on rhythm and nonsense. Now, 29 years later in 2017, Koikeya launched an upgraded snack called "Sugo-n," and that very commercial came back to life in the 21st century, done up with EDM music and lightning-fast footwork dancing.
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ADIDAS ORIGINALS | ORIGINAL IS NEVER FINISHED | 2017
Wearing out an already worn-out song, one more time / adidas Originals "Original is Never Finished"
What does "original" even mean? To answer that question, adidas remixed one of the most overused songs in history, Frank Sinatra's "My Way." The whole idea is ridiculous, and that's exactly why I love it.
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BEAMS | TOKYO CULTURE STORY｜今夜はブギー・バック(smooth rap) in 40 YEARS OF TOKYO FASHION & MUSIC | 2016
40 Years of Tokyo Fashion History, Flashing By in Five Minutes / BEAMS "TOKYO CULTURE STORY｜Tonight's the Boogie Back (smooth rap) in 40 YEARS OF TOKYO FASHION & MUSIC"
From 1976 to 2016, a single unbroken shot races through 40 years of Tokyo in just five minutes. It's simply overwhelming.
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BERGEN INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL BRAND CAMPAIGN | Brand Campaign | 2014
Where Musical Notes Meet Pixels / Bergen International Festival "Brand Campaign"
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.
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THE LINCOLN MOTOR COMPANY | HELLO AGAIN | 2013
When an old brand says "hello again," it rebuilds an entire culture / THE LINCOLN MOTOR COMPANY "HELLO AGAIN"
A brand that had been around for 90 years decided to shed 90 years of being "your dad's car." The password was "Hello, Again." Nice to meet you, once more.
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MINISTRY OF TOURISM GOVT. OF INDIA | THE HINGLISH PROJECT | 2012
When letters blend together, countries blend together too / MINISTRY OF TOURISM GOVT. OF INDIA "THE HINGLISH PROJECT"
In India, mixing Hindi and English together into "Hinglish" is just a normal part of how people talk. So someone decided to turn that into a font.
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SNOOP DOGG | Rolling Words | 2012
An Experience Turned to Smoke: Reading the Pages, Then Rolling Them / SNOOP DOGG "Rolling Words"
You read a book, then light up the page and smoke it. Who else but Snoop Dogg could get away with an idea this wild?
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BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO BANK | THE MOST POPULAR SONG | 2012
Choosing to Rewrite History / Banco Popular "THE MOST POPULAR SONG"
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.
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BING/JAY-Z | DECODE JAY-Z | 2011
They scattered pages of a book all over the world, and a search engine came back to life / BING "DECODE JAY-Z"
In 2010, Bing was completely overshadowed by Google when it pulled off one of the biggest treasure hunts ever, scattering over 300 pages of Jay-Z's memoir across the globe. And the way they "scattered" them was wild: not just billboards, but the bottom of a pool in Miami, a burger wrapper, the lining of a Gucci jacket, a bronze plaque embedded in a Brooklyn housing project, a rooftop in New Orleans, even a pool table at the 40/40 Club.
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BBC | Winter Olympics 2010 | 2010
Why does the Inuit warrior fight the bear? / BBC "Winter Olympics 2010"
I never expected an Olympics promo to pull from Inuit mythology for the Vancouver Games. But somehow, it fits perfectly.
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THE TIMES OF INDIA | A Day in the Life of Chennai | 2009
A cardboard cutout goes from movie star to politician. In the end, only the crows remain / THE TIMES OF INDIA "A Day in the Life of Chennai"
A life-size cardboard cutout is born in the morning and dead by night. In just 90 seconds, you see the true face of the city of Chennai — no wonder it won India's first Film Gold Lion at Cannes.
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HEWLET-PACKARD | THE NATIONAL GALLERY GRAND TOUR | 2008
The Day a Museum Stopped Waiting for Visitors / HP "THE NATIONAL GALLERY GRAND TOUR"
Instead of waiting for people to come to it, the museum sent its paintings out into the city. It's a simple idea, but nobody had done it before HP and the National Gallery did.
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COTY | FRENCH LESSON | 1978
In 1978, this is how the British saw the French / COTY "FRENCH LESSON"
This perfume ad for Coty L'Aimant won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 1978. Released with the line "Do you speak L'Aimant?", the film feels like a mirror reflecting how the British saw the French—and how they saw the French language and the culture of perfume.