Cannes Contenders: Ireland

Firstly, big thank you to shots for asking me to provide a run down of some of the Irish Cannes hopefuls for 2025. 

Ireland is of course a small country, but we tend to punch above our weight internationally across many different fields, such as the Eurovision song contest (well, maybe not this year). So despite having a relatively small number of agencies, we’re no strangers to putting it up to the bigger countries. Probably because we’ve been living next to the Brits for so long.  

Just kidding! (mostly) 

So as the pre-Cannes jitters begin to kick in, here are my predictions for the Irish work I believe has a chance of glory at the 2025 festival. 

Heineken Pub Succession

Because I’m utterly biased I’m going to start by talking about a piece of work we’ve done with Heineken and our partners at LePub, namely Pub Succession, a campaign which has particularly resonance for Irish people.  

Sadly, many of Ireland’s most historic family-run pubs are disappearing as their proprietors’ progeny are reluctant to continue the family business. Pub Succession is a platform designed to counteract this, by matching potential successors home and abroad who bear the same name as the pubs which need saving, thus protecting the family name above the door for at least another generation. 

We kicked off our campaign with Josie McLoughlin the 4th generation owner of McLoughlin’s bar in beautiful Achill Island, looking for his successor – who also needed to named McLoughlin. A worldwide search ensued spanning 123 countries, and Josie’s search went viral. Happy to say we got thousands of applicants too. Anyway, fingers crossed. Enjoy… 

Wunderman Folk Ireland The Leprechaun Law

Next up a fun ‘Orish’ Idea from Wunderman Folk Ireland, The Leprechaun Law. 

Ireland’s hate laws predate the Internet, so when it comes to sharing hate online in Ireland, people just are not protected. Bizarrely, one group who are protected in Ireland is Leprechauns - in 2009 an EU directive gave leprechauns protected status in Ireland.  

There was only one thing for it, invite the people of Ireland to declare themselves Leprechauns, thereby gaining the legal protections afforded to Leprechauns that are sadly lacking for others online, and spur the government into action on updating out hate speech legislation. 

Allianz and Women's Aid The Dead Flower Shop

The next idea a powerful one from Forsman & Bodenfors Dublin called The Dead Flower Shop which landed on Valentine’s Day.

As men entered florist’s all over Ireland to buy flowers for their partners, Allianz and Women’s Aid took the opportunity to remind them of all the women who were killed by their partners. At the centre of the exhibition stood a large bouquet of roses, with a single dead flower representing each of the 274 women killed in Ireland since 1996.

Lidl Look A Lidl Like Paul

The penultimate idea is a fun one from Droga5 Dublin working with discount supermarket Lidl. 

When a Timothee Chalamet lookalike competition went viral, Lidl, who championed the lookalike long before it was a pop culture affair, hacked it to deliver their best lookalike yet: Irish Gladiator II star, Paul Mescal. Unbranded posters for the event popped up around Dublin overnight alongside an anonymous TikTok account. To the delight of crowds of Dubliners, Lidl revealed themselves as the event masterminds.  

Tesco Mobile Same but Tesco

And finally, some lovely animal cruelty from BBH Dublin. 

The premise of this idea is we all do the same dumb stuff with our phones, so why not do it cheaper on Tesco Mobile? To bring it to life BBH Dublin popped a spotlight on the victims of our weird phone behaviours. Our poor pet cats who have to endure endless photoshoots. Hope this made it into Cannes. 

If I missed anyone sorry but it’s only my list, and I’m wishing all my fellow Irish friends the best of luck and let’s hope we do better than the feckin’ Eurovision where we didn’t even taking a swing.