Canvas8 - A Consumer Perspective on Cannes Lions 2015

A CONSUMER PERSPECTIVE ON CANNES LIONS 2015
Can brands change the world?

2Introduction
CANNES LIONS 2015
The art of personal and social change
Every year The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity recognises the creative output of
the advertising and communications industry. After the corks were popped, we examined the
winners through our own unique lens – behavioural insights.
One clear theme underpinned 2015’s winners – improving the world by encouraging personal and
social change. Changing attitudes is hard, and changing behaviour even harder, yet this year’s
winners were able to harness a variety of techniques, from social shaming to intimate inﬂuencers,
to oﬀer an exceptional example of how communications can deliver positive change.
Personal Change Shame Changers | New Tricks | Human Shields | Hidden Help
Social Change Equal People | Communal Codes | Virtual Activism | Social Systems

#1 SHAME CHANGERS
Using shame to spur positive behaviour change
Shame is uncomfortable, but it can be a force for good – doctors who shame patients into
changing bad habits claim it works around half the time. According to psychologists, it’s because
people’s desire to be accepted overrides their internal values.
At Cannes Lions 2015, shaming bad behaviour was a recurring theme; mothers shamed grocery
stores about pro-gun policies, Indians shamed outmoded taboos and feminine care brand Always
shamed anyone who has ever used the phrase “like a girl” in a derogatory way.
Personal Change | Social Change Shame Changers | New Tricks | Human Shields | Hidden Help 3

I WILL WHAT I WANT
When ﬁtness brand Under Armour signed supermodel Gisele Bündchen, it knew people were
going to judge. So it took people’s reactions from Twitter – “Gisele is just a model” – and
integrated them into the advert itself, using the comments to fuel her workout and shame her
haters. Now, Under Armour is the second largest sports apparel brand in the US behind Nike.
Under Armour
Droga5
Personal Change | Social Change 4Shame Changers | New Tricks | Human Shields | Hidden Help

TOUCH THE PICKLE
As Indian superstition tells it, women who are menstruating are impure and unholy. P&G’s
Whisper shamed those perpetuating this myth by shedding light on one of its more ridiculous
taboos; that menstruating women shouldn’t touch pickle jars, for fear of spoiling its contents.
The campaign saw 2.9 million women pledge to ‘touch the pickle jar’.
P&G
BBDO India

GROCERIES NOT GUNS
US grocery chain Kroger allows loaded guns in-store, but not pets or skateboards. Moms
Demand Action For Gun Sense In America shamed the store by showing armed shoppers
alongside people breaking Kroger rules, asking viewers to guess who wouldn’t be let in. The
boycott saw the chain lose over $400,000.
Moms Demand Action For
Gun Sense In America
Grey Canada

LIKE A GIRL
The phrase ‘like a girl’ often implies that girls are weaker, slower or somehow less. P&G Always
asked people to demonstrate what running or throwing ‘like a girl’ would look like, before using
the perspective of young girls to call people out on their ideas of what the phrase really means.
The resulting video saw 60 million views on YouTube.
Always
Leo Burnett

#2 NEW TRICKS
Tricking people into swallowing a new message
People are drawn to the familiar. As a result, when they hear ideas that contradict their worldview,
they tend to switch oﬀ. For communicators looking to challenge people’s deeply-held views, the
biggest barrier is actually getting the audience to listen.
Some of the most awarded campaigns at Cannes Lions 2015 did exactly this. From confronting
gun-lovers about violence to warning teenagers about stoned driving, these campaigns
challenged people’s worldviews by wrapping an unfamiliar idea in a familiar package.

LOVE HAS NO LABELS
To demonstrate how the love diﬀerent couples share – across race, age, gender, religion,
sexuality or disability – is the same as anyone else's, the Adcouncil erected an X-Ray screen in a
Santa Monica shopping centre behind which couples kissed, before emerging and revealing
themselves to surprised onlookers. The resulting video saw over 50 million YouTube views.
Adcouncil
R/GA

TINNYVISION
In New Zealand, where young weed smokers are warned not to smoke and drive (but rarely
listen), the New Zealand Transport Agency launched a Snapchat account featuring a gang of
giggly smokers – and then shocked viewers when its intoxicated stars accidentally ran over a
pedestrian. Packaging the message this way helped them reach 15% of drug drivers.
NZ Transport Agency
Clemenger BBDO Wellington

THE GUN SHOP
Six out of ten Americans think owning guns makes homes safer. So when States United to
Prevent Gun Violence wanted to raise awareness of the dangers of gun crime in the US, it
opened a gun shop in New York selling second-hand weapons. The twist? Each gun had a history
of their death tolls attached.
States United to Prevent
Gun Violence
Grey New York

#3 HUMAN SHIELDS
Talking to people through their nearest and dearest
When it comes to convincing people to make changes, nobody is more effective at influencing a
person’s behaviour than the people closest to them; friends and family. Persuading these
intimate influencers to pass on the message is always going to soften the blow.
In these campaigns, overweight fathers were sent healthy recipes by their wives, football
hooligans were pacified when security guards were replaced with mothers and overworked
matriarchs in India were given the tools to push chores onto their husbands.

SECURITY MOMS
In 2014, fights at Brazilian football matches led to 19 deaths and 132 injured, with security staff
able to do little to help. For the most violent game of the season, Sport Club Do Recife replaced
guards with someone no-one would dare fight in front of – fans’ mothers. At the end of the
match, the club announced there were no arrests.
Sport Clube Do Recife
Ogilvy Brasil

TAKE IT FROM A FISH
Pharmaceutical company Astrazeneca wanted to encourage men to eat healthier. But with an
understanding that “guys who love beer and hotdogs don’t always listen”, the campaign targeted
wives and kids with healthy recipes on Pinterest and Twitter conversations with teens. As a
result, it became one of the top ﬁve performing Twitter campaigns ever in the category.
Astrazeneca
DigitasLBi

SHARE THE LOAD
While the growth of the female workforce in India is a good thing, there’s still inequality when
they return home at the end of the day. P&G’s Ariel drew attention to how little men contribute
in the home by sparking an online conversation with women at its core, seeing 1.5 million men
pledge to help ‘share the load’.
Ariel
P&G

#4 HIDDEN HELP
Understanding how people live in order to improve it
“Good branding is about framing your market around what the customer does instead of around
what you do,” says innovation expert Peter Fisk. The most successful products and services ﬁt into
life so seamlessly, the people using them barely even notice.
Encouraging behaviour change is no diﬀerent; the key is to ‘go with the grain’ and make changes as
seamless as possible. These campaigns showed deep understanding of how to frame a message
within the existing symbols, languages and behaviours of the cultures they’re targeting.

INTIMATE WORDS 
In some parts of Mexico, intimate female body parts are unnamed because they’re considered
taboo. Given that cervical cancer is a leading cause of death in these areas (this myth makes
diagnosis diﬃcult), P&G’s Always set about creating the language to ease that conversation,
which women in Mexico City are now able to pass down to their children.
Always
Leo Burnett Mexico

LIFE SAVING DOT 
Many illnesses Indian women commonly suﬀer from are linked to iodine deﬁciency. But while
there are oral supplements, many aren’t in the habit of taking them. Talwar Bindi took an item
these women wear every day – the bindi – and transformed them into iodine patches. Now, the
Life Saving Dot is being distributed to villages across the country.
Talwar Bindi
Grey Group

LUCKY IRON FISH
The typical Cambodian diet of fish and rice has little iron in it, and as many as two-thirds of
native children are anaemic. Cooking with a block of iron in the pot can make a difference, but
many weren’t doing it – until the block was carved into the shape of a fish, the nation’s symbol
for luck. Early trials show a staggering 50% of villagers were cured of anaemia after 12 months.

#5 EQUAL PEOPLE
Diversity has become the new normal
In 2015, diversity has never been more scrutinised – and celebrated. The gender pay gap is the
slimmest it’s ever been, gay marriage has been legalised in the US and the most successful US TV
show in years – Fox’s Empire – features a predominantly black cast. And it’s changing the way brands
communicate with their audiences.
Whether encouraging women to love the way they look when they work out, celebrating racially
diverse families or backing LGBT rights, equality was an overarching theme at Cannes 2015.
Personal Change | Social Change 20Equal People | Communal Codes | Virtual Activism | Social Systems

THIS GIRL CAN
Many women are worried about how they look when they exercise. This fear of judgement
means they exercise less than men. This Girl Can changes that by reframing the raw reality of
‘sweating like a pig’ as something social, aspirational and inspiring, creating a movement of
‘normal’ women who can celebrate their imperfections.
Sport England
FCB Inferno

THIS IS WHOLESOME
Over a third of the US population and more than half of under-ﬁves are non-white, yet
advertising is still mostly populated by caucasians. This Is Wholesome celebrates the diversity of
the modern family, featuring interracial and gay parents. While just 2% of Twitter mentions were
negative, the brand responded with a video called ‘Love’, which gained over four million views.
Mondeléz International
Droga5

PROUDLY SEEKING PLEASURE
With Caitlyn Jenner at the eye of the storm, transgender women have taken centre stage in the
LGBT conversation throughout 2015. Unilever’s Magnum showcases trans-beauty in a high-ﬁnish
ad spot, concluding with the tagline “Pleasure has more than one layer.” It’s been received with
positivity from the LGBT community, and viewed more than three million times on YouTube.
Unilever
Lola Lowe & Partners

#6 COMMUNAL CODES
Visualising our values through simple, social symbols
In the age of oversharing, everyone has an opinion. But when it comes to voicing our values,
sharing in public can trigger others to follow. As inﬂuence expert Jonah Berger points out, “making
things more observable makes them easier to imitate.”
Whether it’s the millions who participated in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, the Egyptian men
breaking taboos with the #MyMothersNameIs hashtag or the Lebanese women painting their
thumbs red to combat domestic abuse, there’s a new emphasis on people signifying that they are
part of a broader social movement.

#MYMOTHERSNAMEIS
Egyptian men believe that revealing their mother’s name could bring them ridicule. To combat
this outmoded taboo, UN Women encouraged them to give their mothers their names back by
telling the world on Twitter alongside the #MyMothersNameIs hashtag. The video was viewed
more than 300,000 times on YouTube.
UN Women
Impact BBDO Dubai

ALS ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE
Two years ago, ﬁlming yourself pouring an icy bucket of water over your head and uploading it
to social media might’ve seemed insane. But after it was done in the name of ALS, friends were
nominated to follow suit and celebrities started getting involved. Its success earned the ALS
Association $98.2 million in a single year.

RED THUMB
Domestic violence is rife in Lebanon, but there’s no law to protect women. NGO Kafa asked
women to upload images of their thumbs painted red to social media, promising that if the
government approved the law, they would vote them back in. More than 20,000 people posted
their red thumbs online, resulting in a 700% increase in online discussion about domestic abuse.
Kafa
Leo Burnett Beirut

#7 VIRTUAL ACTIVISM
Online protests with real world impact
While often condemned as lazy, studies show that clicktivism – changing profile pictures for a good
cause or following charities on Twitter – can have real-world effects. And with the possibilities of
new technologies, digital activism has never been more effective.
Virtual activism was championed at Cannes Lions 2015 as a counter to oppressive physical
environments. A neo-Nazi march was hacked and ended up raising money against its own cause,
Vodafone used smartphones to covertly connect victims of domestic abuse and, in Spain, a virtual
protest arose when public protests were banned.

RED LIGHT
Keen to address the problem of domestic abuse in Turkey, Vodafone launched an app that
enabled women to seek help via messages hidden in lingerie tags and beauty tutorials. Not only
has it helped women in need, but it showed how smartphones can liberate the oppressed. The
app has been downloaded by 24% of all women with smartphones in Turkey.
Vodafone
Y&R

VIRTUAL PROTEST
In Spain, protests are banned in front of congress. NGO No Somos Delito responded by
projecting a hologram of a march in front of congress; the faces of each hologram were the
faces of those who uploaded their images online. It reached a global audience of more than 800
million, with 330,000 signing an online petition to change Spanish laws on protests.
No Somos Delito
DDB Spain

NAZIS AGAINST NAZIS – GERMANY’S MOST INVOLUNTARY CHARITY WALK
In a bid to raise awareness, NGO Exit Deutschland transformed a neo-Nazi march into an
involuntary charity walk – for every metre marched, €10 was donated to Exit Deutschland,
meaning neo-Nazis were forced to either raise money against their movement or stop marching.
By the end of the campaign, neo-Nazis had raised more than €10,000 for Exit Deutschland.
Zdk Gesellschaft
Demokratische Kultur
Grabarz & Partner, Ggh Lowe

#8 SOCIAL SYSTEMS
Building social good into everyday brands
With the overarching theme of personal and social change dominating this year’s Cannes, it’s ﬁtting
that the desire for a strong moral compass saw brands baking social good into their products, too.
Winners like Volvo, Starhub and Hewlett-Packard displayed something deeper than ‘random acts of
kindness’ and instead delivered ‘thoughtfully planned altruism’; uniting people and brands in new
systems of social change.
Personal Change | Social Change Equal People | Communal Codes | Virtual Activism | Social Systems 32

#4G4GOOD
Singapore-based mobile provider Starhub launched 4G4Good, which enabled people to turn
unused minutes, data and texts on their phone contracts into prepaid top-ups to donate to
those in need, paying forward what they haven’t used to somebody who could really beneﬁt.
Some 500 beneﬁciaries from selected charities received a year’s worth of free calls.
Starhub
DDB Singapore

PRINT FOR HELP
Each year, 200,000 people in Brazil go missing. And when it happens, spreading the word is of
utmost importance. This ‘helping social network’ of HP printers makes it easier than ever to do
that, enabling NGOs to print hundreds of posters remotely to all printers on the network as
soon as someone goes missing.
Hewlett-Packard
FCB Brasil

VOLVO LIFEPAINT
Over 19,000 cyclists in the UK are involved in road accidents each year. Volvo Life Paint is a spray
that increases the visibility of cyclists and other vulnerable road users, demonstrating Volvo’s
dedication to safety – even for those who don’t buy its cars. While the cans were snapped up
straight away, the campaign saw 130 million impressions with no media spend.
Volvo
Grey London

DISCOVER MORE
Selected from the Canvas8 Library, the articles opposite provide members with a
starting point for a deeper analysis of the insights revealed in this deck.
The Canvas8 Library is an unrivalled resource of more than 14,000 articles that
analyse and explain global consumer behaviour.
The Library is available exclusively to members at www.canvas8.com
 
If you would like to learn more about the Library, or discuss any of the
bespoke solutions we offer, then please get in touch with Olly or Nick.
CONTACT
Olly Chubb
Head of Client Services
olly@canvas8.com
+44 (0)20 7377 8585
Nick Morris
Strategy Director & Founder
nick@canvas8.com
+44 (0)207 392 2201
Contact
Who wants to read a branded magazine?
Despite 1,394 entries, this was the second
year in a row that the jury decided not to
award a Grand Prix in the Branded Content
category. In a world full of noise, how can
brands create compelling content that  
grabs attention?
Why we want our values to be visible
Public displays of philanthropy have
become a symbol of status and a means to
express identity through the causes we
support. Motivating people to make a
diﬀerence means building a platform to
show just how good we can be.
A sector snapshot of Citizenship
The best campaigns at Cannes put personal
and social change at their heart.
Understanding what matters to people and
how they interact with wider society enables
brands to connect with an audience through
shared values.
Can shame save the world?
Modern technology has transformed the
age-old mechanism of shame and
magniﬁed its impact. With social media
exposing unacceptable behaviour to a
global audience, shame is now being
harnessed as a force for positive change.
59-65 Worship Street
London, EC2A 2DU
United Kingdom 
+44 (0)20 7392 2201
36

Canvas8 - A Consumer Perspective on Cannes Lions 2015

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Canvas8 - A Consumer Perspective on Cannes Lions 2015