The final Cannes Lions Awards Show of 2019 brings the five-day Festival of creativity, learning and inspiration to a close

Glass: The Lion for Change, Film Lions, Sustainable Development Goals Lions, Titanium Lions and Special Awards announced.

Cannes, Friday 21 June 2019 – The 66th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity came to a close this evening with the last Awards Show. It honoured the final winners from the Communication Track, alongside the Good Track, as well as special awards, celebrating the industries’ best performing companies across the five-day event, as well as industry personalities that inspire and lead the way.

In the Film Lions (Communication Track) celebrating creativity of the moving image, 2,793 entries were submitted of which 77 were awarded Lions: 1 Grand Prix, 11 Gold, 28 Silver and 37 Bronze.

The Grand Prix was awarded to Droga5, New York, for the New York Times ‘The Truth Is Worth It’ campaign – Rigor, Perseverance, Resolve, Courage, Fearlessness – which also won the Film Craft Grand Prix earlier in the week. The campaign brings to light the danger, bravery, perseverance and determination that it takes to be a New York Times journalist and ultimately how that helps people to better understand the world.

Margaret Johnson, Chief Creative Officer & Partner, Goodby Silverstein & Partners USA, commenting on this exceptional campaign, said: “As a jury, we looked for a brilliant idea that had to be combined with a brilliant execution. And this was the best example. The typography is very simple, but extremely powerful. There’s an honesty to it and a simplicity to it. It’s the Naked Truth. And that’s the power of it.”

In Glass: The Lion for Change (Good Track), which commends ideas intended to change the world that address gender inequality or prejudice, 193 entries were submitted, with the jury awarding 8 Lions: 1 Grand Prix, 1 Gold, 2 Silver and 4 Bronze.

VMLY&R POLAND, Warsaw, collected the Grand Prix for ‘The Last Ever Issue’ for Gazeta.pl / Mastercard / BNP Paribas, which saw the agency team up with their clients to buy one of Poland’s longest running and most read adult magazines to then close it down.

Jury President, Jaime Robinson, Chief Creative Officer, Joan Creative, United States, said: “When I look at this Grand Prix, I see culture-shifting creativity in spades. It’s a lightning bolt idea. Every single one of us in the jury room prays for ideas like this every day. The work is transgressive. It takes the system and uses the system to make change against itself. And that is such a joy. And I just love that it takes an object of degradation and it turns it into something beautiful. And then says goodbye to it forever.”

Of the 834 entries in the Sustainable Development Goals Lions (Good Track), celebrating creative problem solving, solutions or other initiatives that harness creativity and seek to positively impact the world, 22 Lions were awarded: 1 Grand Prix, 3 Gold, 7 Silver and 11 Bronze.

Taking top honours, the Grand Prix was won by Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, for Mars Australia’s ‘The Lion’s Share’, a wildlife conservation initiative backed by the United Nations, to raise funds by asking advertisers to contribute 0.5 per cent of their media spend every time animal imagery is used in an advertisement.

David Droga, Founder and Creative Chairman, Droga5, and President of the jury, commented: “Animals are a fundamental part of our world, our culture, our society, and our language, even our filmmaking and marketing. In fact, images of animals appear in approximately 20% of all advertisements. Yet, despite this, animals do not always receive the support that they deserve. Until now. The money raised will be dispersed across the world to save species from extinction, preserve wildlife habitats, and look after animal welfare.

“It was a programme that was instigated and backed by a big brand, supported and put together by an incredible creative collective. They didn’t just make a good film about what they wan