Day 4 Winners of Cannes Lions 2025 Revealed: Top Awards Granted

Unfiltered and Uncensored breakdown of the 2025 Cannes Lions Award Winners

Take a sneak peek into the controversial, groundbreaking campaigns that stole the show at the 2025 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. This year's winners pushed the envelope, with bold ideas that transcended traditional advertising, leaving a lasting impact on culture and society. Here are some of the most talked-about winning entries:

Creative Strategy

Dove and Ogilvy UK went home with the grand prize in Creative Strategy for their two-decade-long "Real Beauty: How a Soap Brand Created a Global Self-Esteem Movement." Rather than focusing on a single campaign, they showcased the strategic journey of Dove as it transformed from a fading soap brand into a powerful voice in the global beauty industry. In a world where 98% of women fail to see themselves as beautiful, Dove took action, launches, and milestones including the viral #ChooseBeautiful and Real Beauty Sketches, the educational impact of the Dove Self-Esteem Project, and newer activations like Reverse Selfie, #TheFaceof10, and Toxic Influence. Their long-term commitment paid off, earning them a spot as the most inclusive brand in Kantar's Brand Inclusion Index, with a $7.5 billion brand value and a market reach of 37% of the global population each year.

Luxury

LVMH, one of the world's leading luxury groups, won big in the Luxury category for "The Partnership That Changed Everything," in collaboration with Havas Play and Publicis Luxe. With strict rules against advertising inside stadiums for Olympic sponsors, LVMH found a unique way to make itself essential, becoming a co-producer for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Each of its maisons contributed to the event in significant ways, from medal design by Chaumet to the trunks used for delivery by Louis Vuitton, to tailored suits for the French athletes by Berluti, Dior's costumes for the performers, Sephora's involvement in the torch relay, and Moët Hennessy's lead in hospitality. This innovative approach earned €350 million in media coverage and a three-fold increase in positive brand perception.

Creative Effectiveness

Apple and TBWA\Media Arts Lab claimed victory in Creative Effectiveness with their ongoing "Shot on iPhone" campaign. The submission highlighted the campaign's evolution while maintaining its core message. Some notable pieces included the World Gallery, a global out-of-home campaign featuring user-generated photography, the moving short film Three Minutes, and the cinematic film Little Garlic. What stood out was the participatory feel of the campaign, where Apple's presence in communities felt genuine, rather than imposed.

Innovation

AKQA, Spotify, and the Museum for the United Nations took home the Innovation Grand Prix for "Sounds Right." This clever campaign credited nature as a musical artist and developed a new business model allowing royalties from her music to fund conservation efforts. The activation saw nature featured on over 170 tracks, raising $250,000 in its first funding cycle and projected to generate $40 million over the next four years.

Creative Commerce

Ziploc and VML won the Creative Commerce Grand Prix with their "Preserved Promos" campaign. By allowing shoppers to redeem expired food coupons with a Ziploc product, the campaign prevented 60 billion coupons from going to waste and boosted sales. The platform's success was due to its simplicity, immediate savings for consumers, and value recovery for retailers.

Brand Experience & Activation

FCB Chicago, Rakish Entertainment, and the Chicago Hearing Society's "Caption with Intention" campaign secured the top prize in Brand Experience & Activation. By addressing long-standing issues with traditional captions for Deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences, the team developed a system that uses color to identify individual characters, precisely syncs captions to speech, and adjusts font size dynamically for tone and volume. This responsive design has already been adopted by major studios like Netflix, Disney, and Lucasfilm, signaling a shift in the industry's approach to accessibility.

The groundbreaking "Caption with Intention" campaign by FCB Chicago, Rakish Entertainment, and the Chicago Hearing Society, which revolutionized captioning for Deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences, stood out in the Brand Experience & Activation category.
In the realm of auto-racing, the thrilling "Grand Prix Fusion" event, a collaboration between Formula 1, Red Bull, and BBC, swept the media landscape with its innovative blending of traditional racing with immersive, virtual entertainment.
The intersection of food and education was explored by the campaign "Kitchen Classrooms," a joint effort by UNICEF, Chef's Table, and Google Classroom. The initiative aimed to teach children around the world about healthy eating and cultural cuisine through interactive cooking lessons.
In the realm of sports sponsorship, Barcelona Football Club's "Culture Unleashed" partnership with Nike showcased the power of sports in promoting cultural diversity and social change. The campaign included rousing advertisements featuring players from diverse backgrounds, as well as community outreach programs.
The Financial Times' "Sustainable Futures" project, a comprehensive look into businesses adapting to climate change, was lauded in the News category for its in-depth reporting on environmentally conscious strategies implemented by numerous industries.
Beyond the world of advertising, the Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Cultural Exchange in a Digital Age" exhibition, exploring the impact of technology on museums and cultural exchange, was a significant contributor to the cultural discourse, earning it accolades in the Arts category.