Cannes Contenders: USA

This year, in an industry that is increasingly risk averse and in which it's difficult to sell/protect great work, I hope the Cannes Lions Film and Film Craft juries go out of their way to listen to their hearts and CHAMPION THE BRAVE!

I hope they champion work that is unlike anything seen before, executed with love and attention by those who risk being fired. Work that rages against the sector, and which backs the unusual suspects. Work that we share proudly (even though we had nothing to do with it), reminding each other why we got into this mad industry. 

Essentially, I hope Cannes champions the work that breaks into the cultural conversation, elevating a brand's message or product, demonstrating the true power of creativity, in what is an increasingly generic, noisy universe flattened by algorithms. Isn’t that what advertising at its best is all about?

We need the brave more than ever in the US – especially in a year where we lost one of the bravest creative leaders of them all, Ari Weiss. 

Squarespace A Tale as Old as Websites

Squarespace and [CCO] David Lee are no stranger to creative excellence, but I love the audacity here to unexpectedly dive into a universe from a Celtic Indy movie (instead of a lazy, box office hit), and use effortless Monty Python wit, literally tossing around laptops and covering their digital brand in mud.

I hope Cannes champions the work that breaks into the cultural conversation, elevating a brand's message or product, demonstrating the true power of creativity.

It's a film starring by a questionably sober Barry Keoghan riding a donkey who incomprehensibly narrates without, perhaps, the necessary subtitles (even for the Irish). But, somehow, it all make perfect sense and is incredible. It's genius. It's brave!

Apple Flock

A film that, when I first saw it, got me so jealous I had to do everything possible to try to stop myself calling [SMUGGLER EP and Co-Founder] Patrick Milling Smith to share my reluctant respect. Directed by Ivan Zacharias, one of my favourite filmmakers of all time, the uncompromising master has visualised privacy in such an original and playful way.  

The uncompromising master has visualised privacy in such an original and playful way.  

The Parliament post production is perfection, as is the overall look, feel, casting and performance. In the most welcome way, it feels grittier, riskier and realer for a glossy tech brand obsessive with design. It's a great example of the power of craft – you could imagine this film being a mess in the wrong hands and without a client willing to take a leap. Bravo to all involved.

DoorDash Your Door to More

I don’t know the director Nick Ball, and he’s clearly a mad person, but my god does he have BALLS! This is one of my ads of the year. The insight is so simple,  so clever. That moment when your food order finally arrives and there is a ring at the door,  we all weirdly jump into this excited ceremony, transitioning from waiting impatiently to the ritual of finally unveiling the curtain to the luke-warm feast's arrival. 

This is one of my ads of the year. The insight is so simple,  so clever.

The execution is perfect. Beautifully directed and perfectly choreographed by the master Ryan Heffington, importantly casting hilarious non-dancers. My wife is a master of this beautifully terrible tradition, Nick and her would get on.

Beats Listen to Your Heart

shots, who I imagine are regretting asking me to do this by now, said I could one piece that came from magna studios, which is good, otherwise I’d have included five. Here, I want to salute the bravery of the clients and the agency; Eric Rasco and Mike Ruferso at Beats, and Jason Campbell’s incredible creative team at Translation. 

This is a film about listening to your heart, made from the heart, and narrated by the heart.

This film could have been executed in many less painful ways, but on every step of the journey the team made each decision in order to make the work better. This is the first time Lebron and Messi star in commercial together, let alone with the new addition to goathood, Shohei Ohtani. A delicate negotiation given the Nike/adidas/New Balance conflict. The filmmakers Julien & Quentin had a day to pitch, and visualised the approach with a single, animated gif they created, which the client and team bravely backed them on (because, truth be told, they are geniuses).

The uncompromising post production by Blacksmith, the sound design by Concrete… this is a film about listening to your heart, made from the heart, and narrated by the heart (aka the Wu-tang Clan's RZA). Something I hope our industry continues to champion as we, too often, allow our head, our fear and our less creative bosses overrule our precious instincts.

Kendrick Lamar Squabble Up

Whilst another Kendrick video gets most of the attention, the video I really love this year is Squabble Up. There are so many layered references and I respect how brave it is in not trying too hard to lay it on too thick. It's so smart and, in my mind, a work of art by the brilliant Calmatic.

Apple Fútbol

I love the brave strategy behind this film, and the unapologetically simple execution. The MLS launches the week after the Super Bowl (on AppleTV+). So, instead of booking an expensive Super Bowl ad, they wait till the final whistle and then Leo Messi casually shares this mic-drop of a clip (to his half a billion Instagram followers!) making it one of the most watched clips of the year (mainly by my nine-year-old), reminding my fellow Americans what real football is all about. 

Tonal Stop Working Out in the Past

This may be an outsider, but in my mind is an absolute masterpiece from the late, great Ari Weiss and his QX team. The courage to make an ad for the fitness sector (and as a start-up agency) that is dark and depressing, and which essentially borrows from horror movies like The Omen and The Witch, as well as communicating strictly through bleak visuals and without any dialogue or VO, is incredibly brave... but the message at the end is still so clear and strong. A great example of the power of craft!

Ari was one of the best and the bravest, let's all take inspiration from his legacy as we move forward and champion – as well as try ourselves to be – brave.

As the legend himself put it; “Like any great idea, the insight is simple but the execution is unexpected and riveting. Great marketing doesn’t happen without great marketers, and the team at Tonal shared our ambition to make the marketing as disruptive as the product.”

The director, my friend Aube Perrie, is one of the most exciting new voices in film, and modestly saluted the team's bravery; "The trust and vision Ari puts in a director, how he allows for total creative space, paved the way for a project like no other, built by a shared obsession for uncompromising substance and imagery."

Ari was one of the best and the bravest. Let's all take inspiration from his legacy as we move forward and try to be (and champion the) brave. Our increasingly mad industry (and, let's face it, our world!) desperately needs it.