Tesco's 'Food Love Stories' wins Media Grand Prix at Cannes

A pledge to preserve Palau, love stories about food and a battle against plastic pollution took home top honors in their categories as the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity continued presenting its awards on Thursday night.

The Media Grand Prix winner, Tesco's "Food Love Stories," demonstrated outstanding trade craft in a multitude of areas, said Jury President Tim Castree, global CEO at Wavemaker. In contrast to the Direct jury's lengthy deliberations, Media jurors unanimously selected their the Grand Prix winner in the first round of voting.

The goal of the campaign, created by Mediacom London/Bartle Bogle Hegarty London, was to highlight the quality of Tesco's food offerings by sharing customers' own favorite recipes, such as "David's hot or not chicken curry." In that spot, David shares how he has been hiding from his wife that he has been putting a dollop of yogurt into the curry because it is too spicy.

The Media Grand Prix winner may have been apolitical, but the category was filled with work involving corporate social responsibility, Castree said. And there was a shift from familiar purpose-driven marketing to corporate activism in which brands took sides on issues like women's and LGBTQ rights, he said.

It was also the year of gifs, with hundreds and hundreds of entries, Castree said, though only a few of them stood out.