8 Best Ads From Cannes Lions 2023

Creme de la creme of the world’s advertising is celebrated every year on La Croissette. Cannes Lions 2023 had lots of fantastic campaigns and we’d like to share them with you. Much like the other famous festival taking place in the city, the one devoted to marketing brings all the best agencies and creatives to the Mediterranean Sea. Here are the best Cannes advertisements 2023.

1. iPhone 14 R.I.P. Leon - Apple

Why: hilariously macabre, Apple’s R.I.P. Leon was among the best Cannes advertisements 2023. With a running time of only 30 seconds and an uber-cool soundtrack by Hanni El Khatib, it’s a perfect little commercial for a perfect little feature of iMessage that is the “unsend”. While it’s hard to impress anyone with this feature in 2023, Apple manages to turn it into an event with this ad and it’s an achievement in its own right. 

2. British Airways - A British Original

Why: not one ad but the OOH campaign, Cannes Lions 2023 has given a Grand Prix to A British Original by British Airwaves. The airline has placed billboards with 512 different “reasons to travel” around the country and it’s truly a touching and moving feat. Reading these short advertising snippets makes you immediately think of booking a flight somewhere and chasing these adventures. Isn’t it precisely what a good ad should do? Well done, British Airwaves.

3. Can an alphabet preserve a culture? - Microsoft

Why: given a new breath of life to the vanishing culture by fully digitizing the alphabet for the first time ever? That’s a wow. And that’s what Microsoft did. But we’re talking Cannes Lions here and in 2023 the short video called “Can an alphabet preserve a culture” was recognized by the jury and we fully agree on that distinction. What Bill Gates-led company did to Fulani language is truly remarkable and it should be celebrated. Also, the 1-minute video feels like a short documentary and effectively uses a short running time (fit for our minuscule attention time era) to address the problem of disappearing culture and show the solution to it.

4. Adidas - Runner 321

Why: a beautiful campaign by Adidas focusing on Down Syndrome athletes has gained the attention it deserved and won a Gran Prix at Cannes Lions 2023. The company promoted the accessibility of marathons across the world for Down syndrome runners and succeeded in bringing the competition along which is not an easy feat to achieve.

5. Samsung Flipvertising Campaign

Why: Samsung plays with fire and kind of leaves unhurt and with increased sales and attention with the “Flipvertising” campaign. Directed at the GenZiers and millennials, it takes aim at the tracking algorithms of Google and invites users to try to outplay the system while participating in it. It’s quite an interesting campaign that is also very savvy and clever in its execution. And it’s among the Cannes Lions 2023 most engaging ads and winners.

6. FIFA 23 x Ted Lasso

Why: the inspiring AFC Richmond is officially in the FIFA realm now. EA Sports smartly uses the star power of a football show to create buzz for themselves and it pays off. Cannes Lions 2023 recognizes the marketing efforts of the long-running sports game. Overall, it’s a very clever campaign that bridges the two worlds: that of classic football and that of Apple TV+ show lovers.

7. CALM x ITV - The Last Photo

Why: one of the most powerful campaigns of 2023 overall and the most memorable recognition of Cannes Lions, Calm, and ITV “The Last Photo” is a touching tackling of the suicide problem. The brands teamed up for an outdoor exhibition that featured photos of the people who took their lives. The main aim of the campaign was to show that suicide doesn’t necessarily have a “suicidal”, negative face. People can seem happy, fulfilled, and merry. The timely help is what matters.

8. Stella Artois - The Artois Probability

Why: in collaboration we didn’t know we needed Stella Artois partners with the Museum of Fine Arts of Buenos Aires to ask a question whether there’s a probability that the beer depicted in famous paintings is actually the one from the famous brand. Now that’s a way to do a marketing campaign with Cannes advertisements, whoever thought about it is a genius. Cannes Lions 2023 thinks the same, and we’re on board.