Rich Levy’s Highlights: Celebrating the Risk Takers at Cannes

And we’re off and running.

The 2024 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity started with a bang last night at the Debussy Theatre with the awarding of Grand Prix and Gold Lions in Pharma, Health & Wellness, Print & Publishing, Outdoor, and Audio & Radio. Two of my favorite campaigns were created by two different agencies for Coca-Cola. The “Thanks for Coke-Creating” and the “Recycle Me” campaigns were bold, fresh, and exciting. Kudos to both Ogilvy , New York, and VML , New York. Both campaigns have one other thing that I always look for in a Cannes campaign. I call it the “I wish I had created this idea” factor. When I’m sitting in the theater, and the work hits the big screen—I often turn to someone sitting next to me and say, “That’s such a simple, amazing idea—I wish I had created that!”

Last night, I said those exact words about the “Coors Lights Out” campaign, which won Gold in Outdoor. The campaign took an accidental event at a Major League Baseball game and, in almost a blink of an eye, turned it into a limited-edition Coors Light campaign. I love the boldness. I love the simplicity. And as someone who works in healthcare, I admire the speed with which the idea went from being a news event to an in-market campaign. Kudos to the team at Rethink , Toronto, Canada.

Speaking of beer, Budweiser and the team from Africa, São Paulo, created a memorable winner in the Audio & Radio category. “The Uninterrupted Ad” campaign used over 500 songs with the word Budweiser in the lyrics into Spotify advertising for the brand—while never interrupting the listener's enjoyment of music. This campaign created a huge debate within our team during our post-award show download. Some people loved it. Some did not. But we all agreed that it was unforgettable. Well done.

But my favorite campaign of the entire evening (not counting our own Gold Lion winner) had to be the “Michael Cera” campaign created by Ogilvy PR for CeraVe skincare. This campaign may be one of the best celebrity endorsement campaigns created since “Mean Joe Greene” for Coca-Cola. What I loved was the integration of a Super Bowl TV spot, TikTok social posts, PR, and, of course, celebrity interviews by Michael Cera to promote a product in (my words) a fairly low-interest category to become the #1 Super Bowl spot of 2024. I’m sure this campaign will win many more awards throughout the 2024 award season. Congratulations to the creators, and yes, dammit, I wish I created this idea.

As Day One comes to a close here in Cannes, I applaud all the winners who took the risks. Who created simple, amazing ideas. And let’s not forget the clients who were instrumental collaborators on the journey. You created some very memorable work and made us proud. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the week has in store for us all.

Rich Levy has made his mark on healthcare advertising over the past 15 years. As one of the most awarded creative leaders in healthcare, Rich led Klick Health to unprecedented creative success. In 2023, Klick won over 160 major international awards. Klick is currently ranked as the year’s Most-Awarded Independent Agency and Second-Most-Awarded Overall Agency for AdvertisingHealth's World Top 10 Agencies, #1 Independent Healthcare Agency from the Clios, Global Independent Health Agency and Regional Independent Health Agency Of The Year from the London International Awards, #2 Healthcare Agency & Healthcare Network of the Year from Cannes Lions & the #5 of all Independent Agencies from the One Show. Major recent awards include Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, D&AD, One Show, The Art Director's Club, The Creative Floor and an amazing 44 Clio Health Awards.