Cannes Lions: City of Chicago, Telenor Pakistan scoop media Grand Prix

The City of Chicago and Telenor Pakistan have won the media Grand Prix at Cannes Lions. 

With Boards of Change, the City of Chicago transformed boarded up storefronts during the racial protests in Chicago over the summer of 2020 into voting booths for the disenfranchised. The campaign by FCB Chicago also won a Black pencil and three wooden pencils at the 2021 D&AD Awards, and drove record voter turnout in Chicago.

Telenor Pakistan also won the Grand Prix for its campaign, Naming the Invisible by Digital Birth Registration, by Ogilvy Pakistan. Telenor teamed up with UNICEF to provide a digital path to registration for the more than 60 million children in Pakistan who cannot get a birth certificate due to social and economic factors, limiting their ability to attend school, access medical care and social security, or avoid child labor. 

Both Grand Prix Winners were heavily purpose-driven campaigns, as were the Gold Lions winners. 

In the U.S., AB InBev won a Gold Lion for Michelob Ultra’s Courtside Campaign, by FCB New York, which brought virtual audiences to sports stadiums during the pandemic to bring energy back to the game without fans. 

Badger & Winters New York also picked up a Gold Lion for #NoKidsInCages, for refugee and immigrant rights nonprofit RAICES, a public art installation that drove awareness to the plight of children at the border by placing giant cages with sleeping children statues in them around New York City. 

And Popeye’s won a Gold Lion for Chicken Wars, by GSD&M Austin, which leaned into the chicken sandwich craze across U.S. fast food chains by starting a war with rivals Chick-Fil-A and Wendy’s on Twitter that went viral and led the company to sell out of its chicken sandwiches. 

Over in the UK, PHD London scooped two Gold Lions. For Volskwagen, it won for Media that ‘Eats’ Pollution, which used Airline, a 100% natural material that reduces air pollution, to create six murals in cities across the UK to promote its ID3 electric vehicle. 

And for HSBC UK, PHD and Wunderman Thompson picked up a Gold Lion for Addressing the ‘No Fixed Address’ Problem, in which it partnered with charity Shelter to help people without a fixed address open a bank account. 

FCB UK also won a Gold Lion for Raising Profiles, a campaign for The Big Issue and LinkedIn to support street vendors who were out of work during the pandemic by helping them reconnect with customers on LinkedIn.

Elsewhere in Europe, Carat Helsinki won a Gold Lion for S-Group’s Your Data is Your Data, which created a calculator to help people understand the impact of their shopping habits on the climate. And McCann Paris won a gold Lion for The Bread Exam, a campaign for Spinneys and the Lebanese Breast Cancer Foundation, which tackled cultural taboos against breast cancer self-examinations among Muslim women.

In Asia, TBWA\Istanbul picked up a Gold Lion for its campaign for nonprofit We Will Stop Femicide Platform, called Invisible Petitions, which enlarged a real petition from a woman asking for health as a giant billboard the size of a building for authorities to see. 

See the silver and Bronze winners below:

NORTH AMERICA

Freedom Tampons by Interval House and Union, Toronto, SILVER

Swipe Night by Match Group and 72andsunny, SILVER

Laundry Night by Procter & Gamble and Saatchi & Saatchi New York, SILVER

Codes of Culture by AT&T and Tronco Brooklyn, SILVER

The Unseen Story, UN Women and MullenLowe U.S., BRONZE

Brutal Postings by Emergence Foundation and Rethink Montreal, BRONZE

Shoppable Girls, Covenant House and Taxi Canada, BRONZE

Trapped in Advertising by Pringles and Grey New York, BRONZE

EMEA

The Illegal Blood Bank by Ladbible Group and Elvis London, SILVER

Just a Wall by Innocence en Danger and Rosa Paris, SILVER

Shutter Ads by Heinekin and Publicis Italy, SILVER

Roadside Market by Mastercard and McCann Bucharest, SILVER

72 Remembered by Justice4Grenfell and BBH London, SILVER

The No Show Room by Volkswagen and Nord DDB, BRONZE

Crocodile Free by Lacoste and BETC Paris, BRONZE

The Last Older Person to Die in Loneliness by BBK Foundation and LLYC Madrid, BRONZE

Anti-Corruption Hackathon by Znamkamarada Prague and Grey Prague, BRONZE

The Online Prank, by Telekom Romania and Leo Burnett Bucharest, BRONZE

40,000 strong by Help for Heroes, McCann London and MRM UK, BRONZE

Undercover Avatar by  Association L’enfant and Havas Sports & Entertainment, Paris

SHIFT+K+F+C by KFC Arabia and TBWA\RAAD Dubai, BRONZE

Invisible Women by Regles Elementaire and Serviceplan France, BRONZE

Insuring the Movies by Direct Line and Saatchi & Saatchi London, BRONZE

Rabbi Bot by Always MediaCom Connections Tel Aviv and Grey Tel Aviv, BRONZE

A Dad’s Job by Home Centre and FP7 McCann Dubai, BRONZE

Migrants on Amazon, Auberge des Migrants and BETC Paris, BRONZE

APAC

Soloways by IAG and Che Proximity, Sydney, SILVER

Blood Beacon by Taipei Blood Center and Wunderman Thompson, SILVER

Slow Down Songs by Australian Road Safety Foundation and Brother & Co., BRONZE

Hope Tape by Korean National Police Agency, Cheil Worldwide and Bounce Creative, BRONZE

A Future Without  Change, Monash University and VMLY&R Melbourne, BRONZE 

The Second Life, IBM and Geometry Ogilvy Japan, BRONZE 

H is for Handwashing by Lifebuoy, Lowe Lintas Mumbai and MullenLowe Singapore, BRONZE

AFRICA

Cold Tracker by AB In Bev and PROMISE Johannesburg, SILVER

Rooftop Farms by Knorr and FP7 McCann Cairo, SILVER

LATAM

We Stand by Santander Bank and VMLY&R Brazil, SILVER

Anti Bullying Skin by Samsung and Cheil Worldwide

She Can buy AB InBev Antarctica and AMBEV Sao Paolo, BRONZE

#StillSpeakingUpDeepTruth by Propuesta Civica and Reports Sans Frontiers and Publicis Mexico, BRONZE

Silence by Deezer and AKQA Sao Paolo, BRONZE

The Skin Trade, Flow and Fundación Manos Abiertas and Wunderman Thompson Buenos Aires, BRONZE

Earth is Saying, Greenpeace and Grey Colombia, BRONZE