Ads that Celebrated the ‘Peak Creativity’ at Cannes Lions 2025
Celebrating the Cannes Lions 2025 winners is itself an act of making yourself aware of the elements of creativity. What are those elements?
Curiosity, Engagement, Storytelling.
This year, too, we saw umpteen ads published, hung, streamed, and televised. The process of creating and stuffing the underlying message in each of them must get out in public. One side of the Cannes Lions 2025 winners—rewarding selective advertisements, brands, and professionals—serves as a reminder for everyone of what they must strive for, what more they could achieve, or where the fault lies. The exact opposite side is that an award cannot be the measurement of art or the artist.
However, today we are not going to choose a side. We will simply reverberate the message as a messenger and present the best of the best ads from Cannes Lions 2025.
One Second Ads- Budweiser by Africa Creative DDB
Budweiser bagged the 2025 Grand Prix Cannes Lions and Gold Cannes Lions for music and audio-led creativity, respectively.
The one second ads is a clever attempt at engaging consumers and potential buyers through music, culture, and beer. One second of a popular song, and buyers have to guess it right to get a discount or rebate code on beers.
While DDB and Budweiser are busy celebrating the wins, musicians and copyright experts have expressed their anger about not mentioning royalty or compensating the artists whose music the beer company used.
Considering What?- Paris Paralympics by Channel 4
Channel 4 won Grand Prix Lions for its ‘Considering What’ Paris Paralympic video campaign. The spot is epic with a certain pinch of comfortless and ableist tone to emphasize how the audience perceives Paralympians.
True to its reputation for pushing the boundaries of sports storytelling, Channel 4 delivered a visually intense and emotionally sharp spot that challenges how society views Paralympians.
With high-impact cinematography, fast-paced cuts, and raw honesty from real athletes, the ad turns the spotlight away from pity and onto performance, strength, and relentless spirit.
It forces the audience to confront their own biases while celebrating the sheer tenacity of Paralympians not as exceptions, but as elite athletes.
The Final Copy:-L’Oréal Paris by McCann
L’Oréal Paris and McCann took home a Cannes Lions Grand Prix for “The Final Copy”, a tribute to honour Ilon Specht, the original copywriter behind the iconic tagline “Because you’re worth it.”
The campaign features Specht herself, narrating a new version of her legendary line—a line she wrote at just 23, in the middle of the 1970s feminist movement. It reintroduces her voice, not as a nostalgic callback, but as a feminist revival in a beauty world that has often buried its roots.
The ad is quiet yet forceful. It resists overproduction and allows Ilon’s presence to take centre stage. That’s the real beauty of it—letting legacy speak for itself.
A rare moment where copywriting history, brand identity, and feminist storytelling meet, and win.
Never just a period- Bodyform by AMV BBDO
Bodyform, with AMV BBDO, grabbed Gold Cannes Lions 2025 with “Never Just a Period”—a campaign that tears down the sanitized, one-note version of menstruation often seen in advertising.
This film doesn’t tiptoe. A spot that tells a grief-stricken symphony, personal experiences, and gaslighting of serious situations.
The strength of the campaign lies in its refusal to water things down. It doesn’t sell empowerment through pastel packaging or euphemisms. It speaks directly and with care to those who live through these moments daily.
By saying it’s never just a period, Bodyform has reframed the narrative entirely, turning what’s often dismissed as routine into something undeniably human and emotionally layered.
Crowd- KitKat by VML
Featured across high‑traffic billboards, subway stops, and print adverts since April 2025, the campaign topped out as the first-ever Grand Prix Outdoor win for the Czech Republic at Cannes Lions.
KitKat’s Cannes‑winning “Phone Break” OOH campaign, created by VML, cleverly utilizes the iconic “Have a break, have a KitKat” tagline by replacing smartphones with KitKats in outdoor ads.
In familiar everyday scenes, waiting for a bus, standing in line, meeting friends; people are shown gazing at a KitKat bar as if it were their phone. The genius lies in simplicity: no slogans, no logos—just the visual metaphor of putting down your phone and taking a genuine break.
ClaustroBars – Stella Artois by Grey London
Stella Artoris and Grey London won Gold Cannes Lions 2025 in the OOH category. The campaign ‘Claustrobars’ is a simple but brilliant photography that speaks volume.
Each shot captures packed shoulder-to-shoulder scenes at busy pubs, bars, or festivals around the world, yet centrally framed is a single person calmly cradling a chalice of Stella Artois amid the elbow-to-elbow chaos
Displayed across DOOH and traditional OOH media in cities like London, Chile, and Brazil, these visuals cut through the ad clutter.
The Decision Was Made Here – Oreo by LePub Bogotá
LePub Bogotá earned a Cannes Lions Silver in Print & Publishing for Oreo’s “The Decision Was Made Here”, a cleverly designed campaign that celebrates impulse and brand instinct.
Shot outdoors and in print, it picks up on a universal grocery store behavior: shoppers often pick up a product, intend to buy it, but then swap it at the last moment, leaving the rejected item slightly askew on the shelf.
Published in Colombia in April 2025 across outdoor and print channels, the campaign resonated for its simplicity and relevance, turning point-of-sale into a storytelling moment.
By leaning into genuine consumer behavior and minimal design, Oreo showed that sometimes the most powerful message is the one that demands no over-explanation.
