Plenty of 'grrr' as Honda takes top two

CANNES - An animated Honda television commercial that extols the virtues of hatred for its power to inspire change, in this case building a cleaner diesel engine, has been lavished with top prizes from its peers in the ad industry.

The "grrr" campaign shows an engine flying through a colourful fantasyland backed by an infectious song by US radio host Garrison Keillor. It won the grand prize for TV at the 52nd International Advertising Festival and shared honours in the newly created titanium category, which recognises innovation and best use of multiple media.

It was created by the London office of Wieden & Kennedy.

The "grrr" campaign with its "hate something, change something" refrain was widely expected to win at festival, after collecting numerous gongs at other competitions.

"It's unusual, irresistible, indefatigable and selling-point intensive," Advertising Age critic Bob Garfield wrote in a column earlier this week.

Meanwhile, TBWA's office in Paris won agency of the year for its cumulative awards across media during the festival. It is the third year running the agency, owned by Omnicom Group, has won the award at Cannes.

The London office of Omnicom's DDB agency took second prize overall and the DDB Paris branch was third.

DDB London won a bronze Lion, as the awards are called, for a popular Volkswagen Golf ad featuring a digitally altered clip of Gene Kelly dancing in Singin' in the Rain. It won another bronze for turning Unilever's Marmite spread into a blob of horror-film proportions.

Among the 30 commercials awarded gold Lions was a farcical Sony PlayStation campaign created by TBWA\ London depicting golfers being stalked by porn stars as if they were animals in a nature documentary.

In the newly created titanium category, three of the four winners were car companies, including Honda, which shared the prize with a campaign by Host for Virgin Mobile Australia.

"Eventually, I think the whole festival will move towards this category," said titanium jury president Jeffrey Goodby, the co-chairman of Omnicom agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.

Advertisers are increasingly shifting money away from television advertising into a broader mix of media, which is why the industry created an award to recognise such work that did not quite fit into any other category.

Kiwi winners at Cannes

Gold Lion (Direct): DDB for online magazine NZ Girl's "Worst Boyfriend" campaign.

Silver Lion (Direct): Publicis Mojo for Hewlett-Packard's "Resignation Letter" campaign.

Bronze Lion (Direct): Colenso BBDO for Liquid Studios "Water Glass Orchestra Set" campaign.

Bronze Lion (Outdoor): Clemenger BBDO for Douglas Pharmaceuticals' "Shadow" campaign.

Bronze Lion (Cyber): Publicis Mojo for Amnesty International "Words Save Lives" campaign.

Bronze Lion (Film): The Sweet Shop for Unilever Best Foods "The Blob" Marmite campaign.

- REUTERS