Both the "Coke Hands" billboard from Ogilvy, Shanghai, and Mercedes-Benz "The Invisible Drive" from Jung Von Matt Hamburg won Grand Prix awards for outdoor at the Cannes ad festival today. The Coke win represents mainland China's second top prize at Cannes; last year, the country picked up the press Grand Prix.
The two Grand Prix winners illustrated both ends of the outdoor-ad spectrum, from traditional posters and billboards to the newest uses of technology. The fact that jurors can award two top prizes in the outdoor category demonstrates how the category has had to evolve as the range of media expands, said festival CEO Philip Thomas. Here, the two types of media are so different there should be room to award both. Jurors can award more than one Grand Prix in the cyber and film categories, too.
WHAT THEY ARE: "Coke Hands" is a simple graphic poster with a play on Coca-Cola's iconic white ribbon on a red background. Twenty-year-old art student Jonathan Mak Long designed the poster; Ogilvy had tracked him down after Mr. Long's tribute to Steve Jobs went viral after his death.