An ‘eye language’ to help paralysed patients communicate, a Brazilian ‘corruption detector’, an Ikea ad that asks you to pee on it and McDonald’s billboards that become road signs are all among the big winners at Cannes Lions so far.

Blink to Speak from TBWA India for the by Asha Ek Hope Foundation and NeuroGen Brain & Spine Institute claims to be the “world’s first eye language”. It aims to help paralysed patients to communicate by using 50 simple eye movements to convey what research told them were the most commonly-needed messages. It won the Health Grand Prix for Good and Gold in the Pharma Lions.

 

Grand Prix in the Health & Wellness Lions went to Corazón, from John X Hannes for the Montefiore Hospital. The 48-minute film and interactive campaign aims to boost the number of organ donors in New York using the story of one patient, Elena Ramirez.

LadBible and AMVBBDO’s Trash Isles campaign won the Grand Prix in the Design Lions. As we reported here, the campaign for The Plastic Oceans Foundation applied to the United Nations to have a mountain of trash in the North Pacific Ocean recognised as an official country, with Al Gore as its first citizen.

BETC’s collaboration with the International Union for Conservation of Nature in which Lacoste has swapped its famous crocodile logo for ten of the world’s most threatened animals on a set of limited edition polo shirts, took a Gold in Design (see our original story on it here)

Another big winner in Design was the Intel Drone Light Show for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in which 1,200 Intel Shooting Star drones created the shape of a dove, a snowboarder, and the Olympic Rings at the opening ceremony.

And Six Tokyo took a Gold for a collaboration with OK GO to promote Double A paper.

 

Finally, FCB/Six Toronto took Gold in both Design and Mobile for Destination Pride for PFLAG Canada. The data visualisation project aims to provide information on LGBTQ-friendly destinations around the world. It brings together thousands of data points – including marriage equality laws, census data and real-time social sentiment – to generate a score for each destination.

The Grand Prix in Mobile went to Corruption Detector by Grey Brasil for ReclameAQUI, which we reported on here. The face recognition app allows voters to check whether politicians have been implicated in Brazil’s corruption scandal ahead of its election.

Snaptivity from R/GA London, which uses AI and a network of cameras to send fans within stadiums images of the best action straight to their seats, took Gold in Mobile. It’s best explained by watching the video above.

Also a Gold winner in mobile was the Samsung Smartsuit, a skating suit for Dutch Winter Olympians equipped with five sensors that fed live body kinetic telemetry and location data to a smartphone app.

And finally, Mullenlowe SSP3 Bogota in Colombia also won Gold in Mobile for MY LINE Powered by Google, a landline telephone number that people without an internet connection can use to access Google Assistant and get answers to their questions.

Cosette’s wayfinding campaign for McDonald’s Canada (which we wrote about here) took one of two Grand Prix in Outdoor.

The other went to Comedy Central New York for The Daily Show Presents: The Donald J. Trump Presidential Twitter Library, an installation displaying both printed and live feeds of Presidential tweets. A virtual tour is available at www.thedailyshow.com/trumplibrary

Golds in Outdoor included Highlight the Remarkable for Stabilo by DDB Group Düsseldorf

And Ogilvy Hong Kong’s Hot and Spicy campaign for KFC

 

Finally, Print & Publishing saw the Grand Prix go to Tagwords by Africa Sao Paulo for Budweiser/In Bev. In order to promote Budweiser to music fans and emphasises its heritage in that area, posters featured search terms that when entered into Google would bring up photographs of musicians holding the beer. So, for example, typing in 1978 ballroom holding Budweiser brings up a photo of Johnny Rotten and Malcolm McLaren clutching beers.

While Åkestam Holst too a Gold for its Ikea ad which invited women to pee on it to see if they were pregnant (really, see our story here)

 

And Mother also took a Gold for its widely-applauded apology ad for KFC

Read more insights from the advertising industry and our Cannes Lions coverage here