Cannes Lions 2005: Honda’s “GRRR” is the best

Wieden + Kennedy UK's "Grrr" ad for Honda has swept the board in Cannes, winning the Film and Titanium Grands Prix and the Film Journalists' Award. The spot was a hot favorite with the industry exec and media alike. Leading up to the Cannes 2005, US journal Advertising Age had predicted the ad to win at Cannes.

According to Sean Thompson, Art Director and Copywriter for the ad, which launched last October in cinemas and on TV, it is not so much a commercial as a philosophy for life. Honda's Chief Engine Designer, Kenichi Nagahiro, when told to design the company's first diesel motor, said he hated diesels because they were noisy and dirty, so he would be radical.

"We thought the word hate was very powerful and that hate could be a positive thing if it made things better," Thompson said. He, Richard Russell and Michael Ruffoff wrote a song, Can Hate Be Good? Which they planned to sing on the ad, but then decided Garrison Keillor would sound better. He added: "Advertising doesn't tend to go beyond the idea, but this ad does with a philosophy for life.

In other awards at Cannes, the first Grand Prix from the new Radio Lions competition was awarded to a blast from the past: DDB Chicago's Real Men of Genius campaign for the US brewer Anheuser-Busch.

"There were 11 spots in this campaign and the jury felt that everyone of them was worth a Gold," said Malcolm Poynton, the jury President. Real Men of Genius, he added, "is entertaining and strong radio. The campaign has been going for some years and started life as Real American Heroes, but after 9/11 became "Real Men of Genius."

Although South Africa and the US dominated this first award list, accounting for 16 of the total 31 Radio Lions, and only six of the 44 markets represented in the contest had English as their first language, Poynton denied that ads in other languages were at a disadvantage.