The Nine Best Cannes Lion-Winning Ads From 2000.
Curator: Me.
NOTE #1: So, predictably, since I’ve (TEMPORARILY) lowered my paywall, freeloaders have rushed to my Substack like corpulent southerners to a Golden Corral buffet breakfast.
Not one fucking person has bought a subscription to my Substack in September (update: there has been one (1) person). I am not well-off. I’m not writing a book. This is my only source of income.
So: please consider buying a sub ($40/year, $5/month), here. Thank you.
NOTE #2: New subs: read this short industry interview to learn more about me.
Know that I do cover good currents ads, when I find them, which is pretty fucking rare, because the state of ad creativity is most-accurately described as: shit-awful.
Therefore, If I only covered new ads, it would be 90% shit-awful ads, which would send me to the woods/mountains/desert to work on the next great American novel, or at least the first ever great ad industry novel, which wouldn’t get finished because I’d get eaten by a bear/pack of coyotes/aerie of bald eagles. I do also cover the shittiest of the shit-awful ads every month, fyi.
Anyway: This is why I often go back in time to When Advertising Tried Harder.
PREVIOUSLY—The Best Cannes Lion-Winning Ads From The Last 35 Years: Part One and Part Two.
A Cannes Lion used to mean something. No more. Cannes has become Cannes-not, or Cannes’t. As in, can’t be counted on to present good ad creativity.
But 2000 was still a very good year for ad creativity.
1. NIKE (1999)
2000 Gold Lion. It actually first ran in December 1999. As some of us feared unexplained explosions, planes falling from the sky, etc. at 12:00AM, January 1, 2000, Nike yet again showed that runners are just made different. Ad agency: Wieden & Kennedy.
2. SCRABBLE (2000)
Gold Lion. Twelve years later, these funny spots would be turned into an award-winning print campaign (here, scroll down). Ogilvy. Singapore.
3. PLAYSTATION
Gold Lion. Playstation did many creatively controversial ads around this time, including this 1999 Lion-winning spot that deified gamers. Ad agency: TBWA, Paris. That’s Lara Croft, btw.
4. MARMITE
Silver Lion. Many ads played off the Tag “You Either Love It Or Hate It”. This may have been the best. Ad agency: adam&eveDDB, London.
5. PIERO Mattresses
Bronze Lion winner. I had not seen this spot before I started this deep-dive search. It is certainly a very different way to sell a mattress brand. I liked it. Ad agency: Ponce MullenLowe, France.
6. HEINZ
I am of Irish descent, so I eat my fried potato sticks as is. But, I like the unexpected-ness of the visual here. Gold Lion. Ad agency: Leo Burnett, Paris.
7. EDS
Silver Lion winner for tech company EDS (HP-owned) that first ran during the Super Bowl and became pretty famous. The execution is excellent, so many humorous moments. Ad agency: Fallon.
8. WHISKAS
No music. No V/O. NO CGI. Just a short “documentary” of two cats facing off over control of the food bowl. It’s a fucking perfect commercial. Silver Lion, deserved a Grand Prix. Ad agency: AlmapBBDO, São Paulo, Brazil.
9. BARCLAYS
Lastly, I first wrote about this 90 seconds of copywriting brillance two years ago.
You will not ever again see a big bank ad like this: Barclays is a big fucking bank and liked being a big fucking bank. So they made an ad about being a big fucking bank, fuck you if you didn’t like it. Directed by Tony Scott, Rob Burleigh was the copywriter. How cool it must have been to watch/hear Anthony Hopkins say your words. Silver Lion, should at least have been Gold. Ad agency: Leagas Delaney, London.