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A
meaningful silence
filled the air, soft
murmurs reverberated
across the Lumiere
Theatre, then a confused,
gradual applause eventually
followed as the representatives
of AlmapBBDO stood up from
their seats and came up the stage
to receive the Cannes Lions 2016
Agency of the Year award.
The audience, aware of the
elephant in the room, watched
intently as AlmapBBDO forced
a celebratory mood as they
posed for the photographers
while holding their latest Lion,
making up for the ones they
returned just the day before.
Initially criticized for being
sexist, the ‘.MOV’ campaign by
the agency for Bayer was soon
found out to be, in the words of
44
adobo magazine | July - August 2016
AlmapBBDO emerged as the
2016 Cannes Agency of the Year
BBDO global creative chief David
Lubars, ‘scammy.’ “The work was
approved by the local client to be
run in Brazil. However, the media
was paid for by AlmapBBDO, which
contravenes the Cannes entry
regulations,” explained Lubars
during one of the sessions hosted
by BBDO in the Debussy Theatre.
AlmapBBDO returned the
Lions it won for the campaign and
withdrew all the Bayer ads from
the competition. “I don’t want that
kind of Lion. BBDO doesn’t want
that kind of Lion,” Lubars added.
This major hiccup, though, was
not enough to drag the agency down
from winning the coveted award.
A collaboration with long-time
client, Getty Images, ‘Millions of
Images. Endless Possibilities,’ pulled
AlmapBBDO out of the muck. To
show the extensive collection that
Getty Images has, AlmapBBDO
created portraits of different
personalities like the Dalai Lama,
Pope Francis, and Prince Charles
using a patchwork of cropped images
that can be found on the website.
“We are delighted to have
received this recognition from the
Cannes Lions jury. This campaign
highlights not only the quality and
breadth of Getty Images’ creative
content, but also the top tier creative
talent at AlmapBBDO. This is a
game changing campaign and it is
thrilling to see this response from
the creative community,” said Susan
Smith Ellis, Chief Marketing Officer
at Getty Images in a press release.
‘Millions of Images. Endless
Possibilities.’ won a total of eight
Lions, snatching Golds in the
Print & Publishing, Outdoor
and Integrated category.