Barack Obama's historical win to become president also made history at the world's biggest ad compet...

1. Obama Campaign Takes Top Ad Prizes
Barack Obama's historical win to become president also made history at the world's biggest ad
competition where his election campaign won one of the most coveted Cannes awards.
Obama for America unanimously won two Grand Prix awards -- one Titanium and one Integrated in
the finales Saturday. The Grand Prix for film went to a dramatic, interactive video by Tribal DDB
Amsterdam for Dutch electronics giant Philips and its new $3,999 home-cinema TV. Titanium has
become an increasingly prestigious category since it sets a new standard for the industry.
The winners capped the most prevalent theme this week for the thousands of ad makers and clients
gathered at the ad fest on the French Riviera: ads today have to operate across multiple mediums,
include user involvement and show results.
In this case the results were votes, user involvement spanned events, campaign volunteers, YouTube
videos, Twitter, Facebook and media included everything from traditional mass media to social
networking.
"They set the framework and let other people contribute to it," said David Droga, jury president and
creative chairman, Droga5 in New York. "They turned (political advertising) from being one
dimensional to something the whole country could contribute to. It was a fantastic idea. "
Despite representation on the Titanium and Integrated panel by three U.S. judges, not everyone was
sold initially on the campaign, the first political campaign to ever win a Grand Prix here.
"I came into this not wanting to vote for the Obama campaign," said Rich Silverstein, co-chairman
and creative, Goodby, Silverstein Partners. "But it was effective. You couldn't ignore it. There will
never be a political campaign that doesn't uses these tools."
Also a first: a digital agency and video took the top prize in film, a category that traditionally awards
the top prize to a TV spot. The video Cinema 21:9 introduced the "world's first cinema proportion
TV." Viewers can click hot-spots to make it feel as if they control the film about a botched armed
robbery at a hospital. The site (www.philips.com/cinema) has had more than 1 million unique visitors
who spend an average of five minutes.
"It has a lot of different elements," said David Lubars, chairman, chief creative officer, BBDO, North
America and the jury president for film. "It's an example of showing the way forward."
The ad runs for two minutes and 19 seconds, an intentional length in order to promote the set's 21:9
display proportion. People can toggle between the aspect ratios and activate the set's signature
Ambilight feature, backlighting on the set that makes it feel more like a movie theater.
"We wanted people to experience the difference between 16.9 and 21.9 TV and we wanted them to
experience between having Ambilight on and Ambilight off," says Gary Raucher, head of integrated
marketing communications for Philips consumer lifeystle.
The agency wanted to created something memorable and used a dark setting, eerie music and dead
robbers in clown suits to demonstrate the product.

2. "We wanted to create something cinematic, action packed and heart-stopping that would get the
audiences attention," said Chris Baylis, executive creative director, Tribal DDB Amsterdam. We were
still discussing the masks two days before the shoot. The crazy evil clown masks are the ones we
went for ... because it made Ambilight look great. "
More demonstrations of good ads: