DIESEL ADS WIN PRESS & POSTER GRAND PRIX Offbeat African Images Edge Out Volkswagen Campaign June 19, 2001 By Laurel Wentz CANNES (AdAge.com) -- A deadlocked jury wrangled for hours before narrowly voting at 10 p.m. Monday night to award the Grand Prix for Press & Poster to Diesel and its former agency, Paradiset DDB, Stockholm, rather than to close contender Arnold Communications' U.S. campaign for Volkswagen's New Beetle. Four of the winning Diesel ads. For either contender, it would have been the second Grand Prix at the International Advertising Festival in five years. Diesel and Paradiset DDB picked up the TV Grand Prix in 1997 for a Diesel TV campaign. Despite a passionate defense of the VW work by nearly half the jury, the Grand Prix went to a series of typically outrageous and bizarre Diesel ads. The winning ads transpose traditional images of poverty-stricken third world Africa and modern, high-living European society. Each ad features several black people in trendy Diesel clothes enjoying a lifestyle replete with champagne, cocktail shakers and laptops. Superimposed on each ad is a newspaper article from the fictitious The Daily African describing the freeing of African hostages held for 148 days by desperate rebels from California, or African diplomats addressing the growing problems of Europe. U.K. ties with U.S. In another surprise, Brazil won as many Related Stories: DDB CHAIRMAN LAUDS DIESEL WIN Says His Company's Ad Ideas were 'Much More Complex' ARNOLD BEETLE ADS JUST BARELY LOST BIG ONE Contrarian Approach Was Widely Admired JUROR: U.S. ENTRIES 'WEAK' IN PRINT CATEGORY Are American Agencies 'Losing Interest'? Gold Lions -- a total of five -- as the U.S. The U.K., which usually does extremely well in the print awards, picked up just two, ranking the Brits behind both South Africa and Singapore with three each of the 29 Gold Lions awarded Tuesday night at the Press & Poster awards show. Total number of entries per country correlated closely with Lions won as Brazil entered more Press & Poster ads -- 1,880 of the total of 10,782 -- than any other country, with even the U.S. trailing at 1,158. The U.S.'s Gold Lions were awarded to: Arnold Worldwide, Boston, for Volkswagen of America's New Beetle campaign; Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Miami, for GT Bicycles; Holland Mark Advertising, Boston, for The Boston Globe; Wieden & Kennedy, New York, for the Nike ad "Bathrooms"; and Fallon, Minneapolis, for the Sports Illustrated ad "Career Path." The U.K.'s two Gold Lions went to BMP DDB, London, for Volkswagen and to Saatchi & Saatchi, London, for a Sony ad for car amps and speakers. From Brazil, F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, Sao Paulo, was the only agency to win two Gold Lions, for rainforest preservation and a local jeweler, and the others went to Almap BBDO, Sao Paulo, for Pepsi-Cola; DM9 DDB, Sao Paulo, for Clorox's SBP insecticide; and Carillo Pastore Euro RSCG for BBV Banco Bilbao Viscaya. Lost Diesel account Ironically, Paradiset DDB lost the Diesel account after a decade to Amsterdam agency Kessels Kramer early this year. The relationship deteriorated after Diesel cut its ad budget and agency founder Joachim Johansson, a former Diesel executive, left to start another agency, Johansson Cave Anholt, whose partners left earlier this month. "Joachim's departure coincided with things happening at Diesel," said Bjorn Rietz, the Paradiset DDB executive creative director who was the copywriter who penned the Diesel ads, and who is a Press & Poster judge this year. "I wasn't happy they didn't want to do more commercials." Mr. Rietz seemed more elated at winning a second Grand Prix -- "That usually happens once in a lifetime" -- than disappointed at losing his client. And he seized the opportunity at Cannes to promote his agency's ability to give the Diesel treatment to another client. "I'm really keen on the agency getting another global account," he said. "It doesn't have to be fashion." Laurel Wentz is the international editor of Advertising Age. © 2001, Crain Communications Inc. Editor@AdAge.com ..