So, you've heard about the commotion caused by the French Amnesty ad: TBWA are two-faced, according to Chinese netheads.

The Wall street journal reports that TBWA Worldwide has gotten into trouble for the bronze Lion winning Amnesty International campaign "after the olympics".

So, the question is now - were the Amnesty "after the olympics" ads credited to TBWA Paris, ever approved? We know it won Bronze in Cannes. If it was a scam ad, shouldn't that bronze go to someone else? (or at the very least, be stripped from TBWA?)

Check out the cached version of Amnesty.org - here's a screendump in case that changes (click for full dump).

Lbi, an international full service digital agency, is holding a press party this Friday, 11th July at 2pm-4pm at their new offices in Brick Lane. With no hidden agenda - no corporate presentations, this is a social gathering to mingle and schmooze with Lbi’s key digital figureheads, the movers and shakers and Who’s Who of the digital world….

Award season ain't over yet - check out the Chip Shop awards where the entries are now posted for viewing on the site.

The Chip Shop Awards are different. It has no rules. It has no regulations. It has no baggage. It doesn’t have a copy writer either, for that matter.

The "wanker" ad on the left here is for the Tourettes Syndrome (UK) Association. It had me squirting coffee out of my nose. Caspa Marketing officially owe me a new keyboard.

More gossip from the little birdies my friends. Is the fantastic Luxor highlighters campaign a scam ad? We do know that the agency who created them doesn't have the account. Oopsie!
Time of India reports;

LEO Burnett’s Grand Prix winning work at the Abbys 2008—Luxor Highlighters—seems headed for controversy. Though Leo Burnett’s work may have seen it winning a Grand Prix, Luxor is in fact Lowe India’s client. What’s even more interesting is that company officials appeared to be clueless about the body of work that Leo Burnett has showcased.

But here's a new twist, we get to hear directly from K.V. “Pops” Sridhar, Executive Creative Director at the "highlight Luxor" ad agency, Leo Burnett, sharing his thoughts about this and other 'legal scams' in the Mint Wall Street Journal/ business newspaper. (inside)

(From left to right: Harry Woods, WWD&S Partner + Creative Director; Grand Coney Winner Rob Wenger; Gill Witt, WWD&S Partner + Creative Director)

So the wrath of Cannes folks have been at it for a few years now, hanging out in Coney Island assumingly bitching about how rough it is to be an ad creative over a few Nathan's. The first times I checked it out it, it seemed just a local silly (not undeserved, just local) award thing with and extra dollop of tacky to get attention. Now however, they've climbed up a bit on the ladder and not only gone out with the aim to get totally hammered in effort to forget not reaching Cannes, but also collecting some neat-o ads as winners while they were a it. Which was the original idea, so kudos to them and this years winners for raising the bar. Check out RamirezTerminix.jpg - that's the bronze winner mates. Cute, ain't it? Then check out Wrathofcannes for links to silver and gold.

So the client didn't like your soooper genious special snowflake radio idea?
Fret not creatives and producers, you can enter it in an award show anyway (and without paying Cannes outrageous fees for it).

Here's the London International IDA (it didn't air) award to your rescue!

Saatchi & Saatchi won a Cannes Bronze Lion over the weekend for their racy JC Penney Speed Dressing commercial. Everyone congratulated the agency for the win except the client because they never approved the spot!

J.C. Penney Co. officials are upset about a racy, fake advertisement on YouTube in which the retailer appears to be endorsing teen sex, and they are blaming the company's ad agency, Saatchi & Saatchi.

I asked which one you though would win, Gorilla or Halo?

For the first time in Cannes History, there's two winners that got the Grand Prix in the film category, Cadbury's "Gorilla" by Fallon, London, and Xbox Halo 3's "Believe" by T.A.G./McCann Worldgroup, San Francisco.

The Titanium Grand Prix went to Uniqlo's "Uniqlock" from Projector Tokyo.

Will Mortierbrigades campaign ”Black boy wanting water” for Studio Brussels get the Titanium? Or Times of India ”Lead India” from JWT? Or is the HBO Voyeur Campaign set for yet another lion? Will Projectors campaign ”Uniqlock” for Uniqlo get it? Saturday night, we'll know. Meanwhile place your bets people. I'm off to celebrate midsummer.

Remember DDB's Giant napkin? Yeah that won Silver in Cannes outdoor. (also in that campaign, giant napkin press and a really big cup of joe)

The Grand Prix however, went to HBO "Voyeur". Yes again, like they haven't won enough in Cannes already this week! Let some other kids have a chance at it! Well deserved kudos for a groundbreaking campaign.

The HBO Voyeur website is here.

Oh yeah, good times - Italy just got a goal against France (sorry France and their fans) and now I hear that indeed Forsman och Bodenfors did take home the grand prix in media with the 70-years older MSS trick and they won media agency of the year in the Cannes Lions 2008. The only competition that came close was the US Leo Burnett campaign for McDonald's that won two gold lions.

Word on La Croisette in Cannes now says that Formans and Bodenfor's MMS campaign for AMF pension (retirement savings) where you could mms a picture of yourself to a number, and within three minutes you'd get your picture sent back albeit aged so that you appeared 70 years old.

They've actually done this before - two years ago but as they said to Resumé when the new campaign came out:

Back then we redid the photographs manually, which was very expensive and time consuming. The result was that we did it in a very small scale, and the campaign didn't make such an impact. Now we've found a way to change the images digitally, so that everyone and anyone can see themselves at the age of 70 within three minutes."
--Cecilia Rosendahl Lavén.

Ad agency: Forsman & Bodenfors
Leif Sorte och Andreas Engstrand project leaders, John Bergdahl Art Director, Jacob Nelson and Anna Qvennerstedt copywriters, Linda Hymér production, Lotta Dolling designer, Sophia Lindholm web producer, Anna Bergström and Magnus Kennhed agency producersr, Martin Cedergren web director
Production for web: Perfect Fools

The 2008 Direct Lions have been handed out at Cannes today. JWT India took home the Grand Prix for their effort was to elevate The Times of India from merely being a social mouthpiece to a catalyst of social change. Click on the images to see them larger.

Grand Prix
Title: LEAD INDIA
Advertiser/Client: BENETT COLEMAN AND CO.
Product/Service: THE TIMES OF INDIA NEWSPAPER
DM/Advertising Agency, City: JWT INDIA, Mumbai

Credits:
Agnello Dias, National Creative Director
Debu Purkayastha, AVP+ Senior Creative Director
Vistasp Hodiwala, AVP+ Senior Creative Director
Arkadyuti Basu, AVP+ Senior Creative Director
Vinayak Gaikwad, Creative Director
Simone Patrick, Senior Copywriter
Kaushik Iyer, Junior Copywriter
Anuja Arora, Account Executive

The Cannes Lions are buzzing with this gossip, the question is, will Forsman and Bodenfors bring it home with their "Nationalencyklopedin, All you need to know" idea or will it go to "Smart, Replica cars around the city." from ANR BBDO?

Other Swedish contenders in media:
AMF Pension, MMS. by: Forsman & Bodenfors.
American Express, Le Metro. by: Ogilvy.
Agency Golf Contest, Totally Unacceptable. by: Ogilvy

We'll find out soon enough.

I bet the creators of the Voyeur campaign are feeling mighty chuffed now, first Clio and One Show golds - now the Cannes Lions Grand prix. (media lions: Best Use of Special Events&Stunt/Live Advertising) Not bad at all. The HBO Voyeur website is here.

Lets get ready to rumble people. On the one hand Cadbury's Gorilla won a coveted Black pencil (which must have made Director Juan Cabral , Copywriter, Juan Cabral, Art Director Juan Cabral and the Creative Director Juan Cabral really happy) on the other hand we have the Halo 3 Believe commercial which has been raking in the awards all spring now.

You may now place your bets, so that you can go "told ya so!" or "Meh, that was so rigged" on Friday. Suggestions for Dark horse? Wouldn't it be lovely if Cannes Lions flexed it's international muscles and gave the Grand Prix to a well deserving Japanese/Argentinian/(insert other far way land here) that we have yet to see instead of the safe bets? That's the kind of Grand Prix I like to see.

Thijs Biersteker and Karian Weijers from the Willem de Kooning Academy won the gold in Young Lions print today. Silver went to Selim Unlusoy and Bahadirhan Peksen from Lowe Istanbul. Germany took bronze thanks to Sina Malosczyk and Nathalie Krüger from KNSK Werbeagentur GmbH.

Tonight's the Direct and Promo Lions awards ceremony, judging is currently in progress.

Looks like our very own 'designing prince' Carl-Philip Bernadotte - the Duke of Värmland - has won a design competition. He submitted his proposal under a psuedonym which may explain why I can't find any information on this other than on the Royal website "Kungahuset.se", and in the tabloids here in Sweden (#1, #2). My translation of what the official statement on Kungahuset.se says;

The spring of 2007 the Prince studied at the well known school Rhode Island School of Design in the United states.
At the school there was a contest to create the best new look for the Martha's Vineyard Museum in Massachusetts. In a tough competition with other students, the Prince turned in his suggestion using a pseudonym.
The Prince was hired, after completed studies, by the museum to develop a corporate identity for them. This corporate identity is now in use by the museum in their advertising and information about the museum.

Douglas Coupland & Terry O’Reilly at The Bessies.
The Bessies were held in Toronto on Thursday, May 15th. I know, the name of this annual event is a bit ambiguous. “Bessies” is it about cows? Your great aunt? The Bessies is the Canadian ad industry's top award show, put on by the Television Bureau of Canada, to honor the best in Canadian broadcast advertising. In past years, the Bessies has been an all day event, beginning at 11 in the morning and going to the wee hours. Which caused difficulties, as many were drunk by lunch and hung over by 5 p.m. This year, for the first time, it began with cocktails at 5:30 p.m. – much more civilized. It was at Toronto’s Royal York Hotel (lovely), where it was held in its inception, but has not been held there for many, many years since (so long that no one knew it was ever held there).

The Show began at 7 p.m. with guest speaker Douglas Coupland (author/pop-culture icon) being interviewed by Terry O’Reilly. (If you’ve never caught O’Reilly’s Age of Persuasion on CBC radio, I highly recommend it). I have a confession to make: Last year, Crush Toronto did a series of nine clips to promote Coupland’s latest novel, The Gum Thief, and I had a feeling that this campaign (view here: http://www.crushinc.com/gum_thief/) would win some awards. (It won a bronze pencil the week before at the One Show.) But when I heard that Coupland was speaking, I knew that they were definitely picking up some awards...why else would Coupland be there? Simple logic. So with this in mind, I sat myself close to Crush so I could see their reactions when they picked up an award or two.

Imagine a car brand asking its customers to drive its car less so as not to pollute the environment. Or a chocolate brand asking its consumers to refrain from eating their product before going to bed…sounds crazy right?
Well that is exactly what our cellular client did when it appealed to its subscribers to refrain from sending text messages when driving. This did not only go against common sense, but against the company's obvious financial interests as well. This generated an unusual and innovative message in the advertising landscape so you'll understand why the judges at the Clio chose the orange ad, as the only ad in the telecommunications category to be shortlisted in the competition and featured in the Festival's exhibition.

Chief Creative Officer – Gideon Amichay
Creative Director – Tzur Golan
Group Creative Director – Yariv Twig
Copywriter – Geva Kochva
Art Director – Asaf Covo
Account Director – Meirav Harel
Account Manager – Merav Greenshtein
Planner- Hila Tamir