Cannes Predictions: Lisa Topol and Derek Barnes, Co-CCOs of DDB NY

Lisa Topol and Derek Barnes are Co-Chief Creative Officers of DDB New York. With Cannes Lions just days away, they reveal their top picks for award-worthy campaigns at this year's festival. 

Exclusive the Rainbow/ Skittles

DDB Chicago 

Even if we weren’t contractually bound to love this Skittles idea, we’d be obsessively in love with this Skittles idea. Making a multi-million-dollar Super Bowl spot exclusively for one Skittles fan to watch alone is so audacious and silly and wonderfully counter-intuitive to the whole Ad Meter circus. The preceding teasers starring David Schwimmer were perfectly on brand for Skittles and, we presume, led to a hilarious, effective Super Bowl spot. We asked Ari Weiss (CCO, DDB North America) if we could see it and he said, “Not unless your name is Marcos Menendez.” Sadly, it’s not.

Re:scam/ NetSafe

DDB New Zealand

We love the altruistic brilliance of this idea, especially in the age of Cambridge Analytica, where A.I. and bots are being turned against people for suspicious purposes. This wonderful idea deploys A.I. against dubious human beings. Scamming online scammers with bots so they can’t make as many victims is worth all kinds of awards that have nothing to do with advertising, but we’d say it’s worthy of the best our industry can bestow at Cannes.

McDonald’s “The Flip”

We Are Unlimited

It might be tempting for advertisers to exploit International Women’s Day to try and drum up an image of equality even if that company’s beliefs and practices don’t pass muster. But, besides McDonald’s’ simple yet beautiful idea of taking one of the world’s most iconic images and flipping it into a “W,” the thing that makes this idea really special is that it wasn’t just lip service. The stores they chose were all franchises owned by women. And as a company, 6 out of 10 restaurant managers are women. That’s golden.

“Pee ad”/ Ikea 

Åkestam Holst

This is definitely the ad we most want to pee on. Not only does it save someone from shelling out 10 bucks for a pregnancy test, but it also offers up savings on a really nice Ikea crib. Plus, it’s proof that print is not dead, and it’s a great example of matching a consumer to a product they need.

Child Replacement Programme/ Pedigree 

Colenso BBDO

Who needs kids anyway? This work speaks to the true power of bringing a pet into your life, especially for empty nesters. It’s a smart campaign with great integrated elements (like a service that turns a kid’s old bedding into a dog bed) to remind us that even when kids aren’t there to make a mess or ruin our social plans, there’s always a furry kid at a local shelter more than willing to step up to the plate. 

"The Human Catalogue”/ Ikea 

BBH (Singapore)

Score another one for Ikea: great use of social media and cool-looking people with photographic memories. It’s hard to imagine a better way to encourage people to spend time with the contents of the actual Ikea catalogue, let alone literally get them to eagerly study every single detail of something they may otherwise toss in the trash, or not read at all.