The Cannes Design Lions Grand Prix honor was bestowed upon AMV BBDO, London, for creating a flag, currency, passports and stamps for a country–all to raise awareness of plastic pollution and how it negatively impacts our waters and sea life. The country is the size of France and it’s been formed by plastic and trash in the North Pacific. On Worlds Oceans Day (June 8, 2017), the global nonprofit Plastics Ocean Foundation and LadBible submitted an application to The United Nations to recognize The Trash Isles as an official country.
AMV BBDO created an identity for the country and asked the public to support it by becoming citizens. The currency designed by AMV BBDO was called Debris. The illustrations on the notes demonstrate the horrible reality of how the plastic is affecting our oceans.
The passport also carried on the theme of animal brutality with other sea life including a seal and a turtle trapped by the plastic floating in the ocean.
And the postage stamps showed the sheer volume of trash in the ocean and how its devastated the surrounding sea life.
All these assets–which served to make something that sits hundreds of miles out at sea more tangible to the pubic at large–were printed on recycled plastic to re-use the very thing that was hurting the oceans.
Mobile Grand Prix
Meanwhile Grey Brazil earned Cannes Lions Mobile Grand Prix distinction for the Corruption Detector which became the most downloaded app in Brazil. The Detector from Savoir Tecnologia and Studio Penka was done on behalf of Grey client ReclameAQUI, the top consumer protection company in Brazil, which decided to extend its reach to citizen rights. And in a country with over 200 million smartphones, there was no better way to fight corruption then turning their phones into a weapon against corruption.
Based on facial recognition technology from Microsoft, Corruption Detector is a free app that draws on a comprehensive database with all the official records of corruption, previously hidden in hundreds of courts across Brazil. By simply pointing a phone at a candidate, voters can now spot the corrupt ones in purple, no matter where they are: TV, papers, internet, outdoors and even in person. All data organized by the app is available for reference at any time. And on election day, users receive an important notification: a reminder not to vote for a corrupt politician.
Gold Lions
Among the Design Gold Lion winners were: Lacoste’s “Save Our Species” from BETC Paris; Pflag Canada’s “Destination Pride” from FCB/Six Toronto; Double A International Network’s “Obsession For Smoothness” from Six Tokyo; AIDES’ “#ShareTheLove” from TBWAParis Boulogne-Billancourt; Ehinger Kraftrad’s “The Archaeologist” from Serviceplan Munich; and two for the Intel Drone Light Show At The Olympics.
Mobile Gold Lion winners included: Samsung Smartsuit from Samsung Electronics Benelux, Amsterdam; Pflag’s “Destination Pride”; “Cybersmile” from Adam&Eve DDB London; Mars’ “Selfiestix” from Colenso BBDO Auckland; and two each for Snaptivity from R/GA London, and Ministry of Communications & Information out of MullenLowe SSP3, Bogota.
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More