In Cannes International Advertising Festival, 2004, DDB London picked up five coveted Cannes Lions including the prestigious Press Grand Prix for their 'Cops' commercial for Volkswagen's Polo. 'Cops' was also awarded a Gold Lion in the Outdoor Category. This is DDB London's third Grand Prix, the first for Coty in 1978, the second for Volkswagen in 1988 and now the third in 2004 also for Volkswagen.
The award winning commercial was created by Dylan Harrison, Feargal Ballance, Nick Allsop and Simon Veksner.
Creative Dylan Harrison commented: 'We have been surprised at the success of the ad as it was such fun to make, it didn't feel like work. The idea began as an idle joke that cropped up when looking for the 'real' solution to the brief. And therein lies the strength to the ad. It's simple, it works and it's fun. It doesn't feel like your average car ad, it's unexpected.'
Photo: Volkswagen Polo's winning 'Cops' ad 'Small but tough. Polo.'
He continued: 'Although the ad didn't really change from the inital layout, the execution was all important. We chose photographer Paul Murphy as he had a lot of good narrative work in his book. A static image has more power if you feel something has just happened, or is about to happen. Much of the ad is just an empty road which begs the question 'What are the cops hiding from?'. Once we told him we wanted it to look like a film still from the Al Pacino movie 'Dog Day Afternoon', he got it straight away and produced a great shot.'
Also awarded was the 'Stretch' campaign consisting of 'Bikini, Shirt & Trousers' for Harvey Nichols which picked up a Silver. Film work for Volkswagen picked up two awards; 'Bollocks' was awarded a Silver and 'Jogger' was awarded a Bronze.
Across the Network, DDB was awarded with thirty-four Lions: twenty-one in TV: two Gold, ten Silver and nine Bronze. In print DDB was awarded with six Lions. DDB also won two Silver and two Bronze in the Direct competition and one Silver and two Bronze in they Cyber category.
Great work, DDB London!
posted by BlogFonk: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 [#] Erms Suripatty