Leo Burnett screens its 50 hot Aces At Cannes

Leo Burnett hosted its annual event ‘Aces At Cannes’ 2007 by screening the Cannes prediction reel of 50 television commercials from all over the word. The Leo Burnett Creative Exchange has internationally selected these commercials from the best TV work developed during the year, irrespective of which agency produced it.

The exchange believes the selected commercials have the potential to pick up an award at the Cannes festival this year. These commercials are in no relation with the actual shortlists at the festival.

As a test of creative judgement, the audience were asked to pick up their 20 best commercials from the lot of 50. This activity gave a chance to see how this assessment of creativity fared with that of the final judgement of the Cannes jury during the announcement of results on June 23 this year.

Some of the commercials that were collectively liked by the audience include 1st for Women Insurance ‘Taking a piss’ created by Black River FC, Johannesburg, South Africa; Coca Cola ‘Happiness Factory’ created by Wieden +Kennedy, Amsterdam; Mountain Dew ‘Master’ created by BBDO, New York; XBox 360 ‘Cops and Robbers’ created by McCann Erickson, San Francisco; Dove ‘Evolution’ created by O&M, Toronto; and Johnnie Walker ‘Human’ created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty, London.

Happy Dent Teeth Whitening Gum commercial created by McCann Erickson India had obvious reason for its unanimous liking as was the only commercial that featured from India in the list of the top 50.

For the record, the Cannes predictions reel has been in practice at Leo Burnett since 1986. The concept was first started by Donald Gunn, former director of creative resources worldwide, Leo Burnett, for Leo Burnett employees. The reel has slowly gained stature over years to become a popular assessment medium for creativity in television, world over.