By Adweek and PDN staff

CANNES, FRANCE – A Wrangler jeans campaign photographed by trend-setting photographer Ryan McGinley won the top print advertising prize at the International Advertising Festival in Cannes, France. The campaign was created by agency Fred & Farid in Paris.

The ads, shot in the style of a nature documentary, were designed to bring the Wrangler brand to a new audience in Europe.

“We are really big fans of Ryan McGinley, so this was the perfect project for him. We could really give him the freedom he needs to express himself,” ad creative Fred Raillard told Adweek in a video interview. “We went for two nights in New Jersey with 12 models in New Jersey, just doing crazy things for two nights. ... Everybody committed to that project and everybody went crazy mad for two nights. We brought back 5,000 pictures.”

(PDNPulse featured the winning Wrangler ads last year.)

The Cannes advertising festival wrapped up over the weekend. Also drawing honors this year: The marketing campaign that took Barack Obama to the White House, and a groundbreaking interactive commercial that presents a three-dimensional scene frozen like a still photograph.

(For a complete list of winners, visit CannesLions.com.)

In the Film competition, a digital agency, Tribal DDB in Amsterdam, won the Grand Prix for its epic "Carousel" spot for Philips. The ad, directed by Adam Berg of Stink Digital and promoting the Philips Cinema 21:9 LCD TV, depicts an elaborate robbery gone wrong, frozen in time throughout one continuous tracking shot, and includes interactive touch points where viewers can access additional content.

The executive creative director was Neil Dawson, and the creative directors were Chris Baylis and Andrew Ferguson.

( View the winning Philips ad at PDNPulse.)

Film jury president David Lubars, chairman and chief creative officer of BBDO North America, said the Philips spot is not only a "brilliant piece of content" but also "shows the way forward" as a film that works across multiple screens and offers interactive elements with additional content.

The Grand Prix in the Titanium and Integrated categories went to the Obama effort, which was created by a multi-agency team, including AKPD and GMMB. The Titanium and Integrated jury came to a unanimous decision that the Obama campaign deserved the top honors in both contests, said jury president David Droga, creative chairman of Droga5, because it was a ground-breaking political campaign that engaged the public and featured an idea that was "made better" with its use of different media. "It created a movement that was more than advertising," said Droga. "From the strategy to how they used different media, it was a very compelling moment in marketing."

The campaign, Droga added, broke the mold of political advertising, embraced technology and created a template that was up to the public to fill in. "It felt like it was created by the people," he said. "The general public got consumed by it and added a different element to it. Incredibly inspired grassroots movement."

Another big winner at Cannes, CumminsNitro's "Best Job in the World" campaign for Tourism Queensland, won an unprecedented three Grand Prix (in Direct, PR and Cyber). The campaign, which advertised an island caretaker job on the Great Barrier Reef, took a tiny budget of $1.2 million and built a global phenomenon that spread virally online. "It's the conversations they generate that's important," said Lars Bastholm, chief digital creative officer at Ogilvy and Cyber Jury chair.

The Agency of the Year honor went to DDB Brazil in São Paulo, with Almap BBDO in São Paulo and DDB & Co. in Istanbul coming in second and third place.

BBDO Worldwide was named Network of the Year. DDB and Leo Burnett came in second and third.

The Palme D'Or went to Phenomena in Thailand.

Amid the recession, attendance and award entries were down 40 percent at Cannes this year. Many of the presenters focused the need to rethink traditional advertising practices.

Internet executives like Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer and Google's Eric Schmidt had high-profile speaking slots. Even TV commercials themselves are undeniably changing, as evidenced by the decision of the Film jury to award its Grand Prix to a digital agency, Tribal DDB, for an interactive video that appeared only online. 
 

"The work we create has to be a magnet where you voluntarily come to it," said David Lubars, Film jury president and chairman and chief creative officer of BBDO North America, who commended the film as a brilliant piece of content that works across multiple screens and gives viewers a deeper interactive experience. "That's where it is going."

With reporting by Eleftheria Parpis of Adweek in Cannes, France. For more of Adweek's coverage, visit realtimecannes.com.