Gorilla Scoops AD "Oscar" at Cannes Ceremony
23 June 2008
Cadbury Dairy Milk's Gorilla has been named the world's best ad at the prestigious Cannes Lions International Advertising Award.
The ad scooped the Grand Prix award beating off competition from more than 4,000 shortlisted entries around the globe. Cannes is seen as the "Oscars" of the ad world – and this major prize tops off a remarkable year for the CDM commercial.
Cadbury UK marketing director Phil Rumbol and Director of CDM Marketing Lee Rolston. joined Fallon, the London agency behind Gorilla, to collect the award at Saturday night's ceremony in Cannes.
Said Phil, "I'm particularly proud to pick up this award because it's chosen by the world's top advertising figures. It's the first time Cadbury has ever won the Grand Prix which is a remarkable tribute to Gorilla's success when you consider the iconic ads this business has created in the past."
Cannes Jury chairman Craig Davis, the global creative chief of ad agency JWT, called the ad, "a courageous piece of work," defying the conventions of confectionery advertising.
"What 'Gorilla' does is it challenges all those assumptions and subverts them all and says that chocolate is all about pleasure. It's a great piece of entertainment ... everyone's waiting for that moment, everyone's going to want to drum along," he said.
Gorilla shared this year's Grand Prix award with Sony's X-Box web campaign, after the jury were unable to separate the two campaigns.
The International Advertising Festival – Cannes Lions – is the largest gathering of worldwide advertising professionals and advertisers as well as the most prestigious annual advertising awards.
Each year, more than 10,000 visitors from the advertising and allied industries attend the event to celebrate the best of creativity across all media mix and discuss industry issues. More than 25,000 ads from all over the world were showcased and judged at the Festival.
© 2010 Cadbury plc