BBDO win 5 Cannes Lions for Pakistan

Cannes, France: At the world’s most prestigious creativity and advertising awards festival last week – Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity – BBDO Pakistan continued their stellar run by winning five Lions.

The metals – two Silver Lions and three Bronze Lions – were won across four different disciplines: Design, Craft, PR, and Media. These were awarded to two different projects:

• “The Bridal Uniform” for UN Women in collaboration with Ali Xeeshan and Mint PR, a project which stood as a protest action against child marriages.
• “Truck Art Childfinder” for Berger Paints in collaboration with Impact BBDO Dubai, Samar Minallah Khan, her team of truck artists, Roshni Helpline and Sarah Tareen Productions. In this project, 20 trucks were painted with portraits of missing children which then traveled around the country.

In the last five years, BBDO have consistently brought international advertising honor and fame to Pakistan, and remain the only advertising agency in the country to have been recognized at this grand festival. They have now won a total of 11 Lions in this short time, including two Golds.

The agency also won eleven Lion shortlists this year – in itself a tremendous honor at a highly selective festival that only recognizes the best work in the world.

Regional Executive Creative Director, Impact BBDO Middle East and Pakistan, Ali Rez said that “We are eternally grateful to our client partners and agency teams who share the belief and commitment to create the most creatively effective work not only in the region, but in the world. Good work works good.”

Ali Rez was also on the prestigious Cannes Lions Glass jury this year, a category that awards work striving for gender empowerment and fights gender inequality and injustice. He is the only Pakistani to have judged at Cannes Lions.

Cannes Lions are the most established and coveted awards for the creative and marketing communications industry, and have been celebrating creativity since 1954. The trophy remains one of the toughest awards to win in the industry. This year, juries judged from more than 30,000 entries from around the world.

Earlier this year, BBDO Pakistan were also honored as one of the top three agencies in MENAP at Dubai Lynx, and won the Grand Effie award at the inaugural Effie Pakistan and two Silver Effies at APAC Effie, again the only agency in Pakistan to do so.