MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The Grand Prix for Print and Publishing Lions at this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has been awarded for a campaign that pays tribute to frontliners and healthcare workers. The “Courage is Beautiful” campaign features close-up photos of different healthcare workers looking anything but glamorous after what is assumed to be difficult hours dealing with the pandemic.
The portraits of both male and female workers, with their masks down and faces exposed with scars and burns, is jarring for their raw quality but also because there are no attempts to hide what are perceived to be blemishes or unattractive features. At the end of the case study video, a simple message states, “As a thank you, Dove is donating to Direct Relief to care for front-line healthcare workers in the U.S.”
Even as Ogilvy and Dove took home the Grand Prix, there was only one recipient of a Gold Lion for Print and Publishing Lions. That honor goes to Africa DDB Sao Paulo for “The Most Valuable News,” a campaign for the Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo.
As the world continues to be bombarded with fake news for the past few years, the search for news that is true is more critical than ever. To emphasize this, the largest newspaper in Latin America, Folha de Sao Paulo, presented themselves as something as valuable as money. They brought in a former official money designer illustrator to print news for the first time the way that money is printed.
This included a different texture, serial numbers, barcodes, UV ink, micro prints microlettering, holographic seals, and ink in relief to guarantee the authenticity and value of each news article that was printed in the paper.
Every year, Print and Publishing Lions celebrate creativity in circulation. The winners in this category had to demonstrate ideas that leapt off the page, exhibited ingenuity, and presented outstanding craftsmanship in published media.
Unfortunately for the Asia-Pacific region, no campaigns were deemed worthy of any Print and Publishing Lions for this year.
