My favourite Cannes Grand Prix: MG Parameswaran

The 59th edition of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is just 12 days away. Leading up to the event, Campaign India asks Indian adlanders to pick their favourites, from among all Grand Prix winners at Cannes.

MG (Ambi) Parameswaran , executive director and chief executive officer, Draftfcb + Ulka Mumbai, selected the Apple '1984' spot that earned the Grand Prix in Film Lions back in 1984.

Watch the spot (story continues below)

  

Explaining his choice, Parameswaran said, "The spot created by Chiat/Day [Lee Clow was the creative director and Ridley Scott the film director] ran just once on the Superbowl in 1984, then went on to change the world, and win the Grand Prix in the year 1984. The spot created history of sorts by defining how a new player can take on a monolithic brand leader, without sinking into simple comparisons. The film is larger than life in its execution and brings out the drama for a product which till then was seen as a grey box. For those of you who have read the book ‘Steve Jobs’, there is the story of how the ad almost never ran [so true in our day to day life as well]. The film ran because someone from the client side and someone from the agency side decided to stick their reputation on the 60 second spot. The film was the most talked about spot that year. Remember those were the days before Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, and social media. The film went viral. It was played, replayed by television stations around the world. It became a critical part of any discussion on television advertising. It continues to fascinate millions of Apple fans around the world [who strangely may be behaving a lot like the zombies in the 1984 film, as a blog post mentions]. A great campaign needs to stand the test of time. The Apple ad ‘1984’, like the eponymous book, stands tall in the minefield of quicksilver ad fame."

Credits (courtesy www.canneslions.com): 

Advertiser: Apple Computer
Product: Computers
Entrant Company: Chiat/Day, Los Angeles
Country: USA
Year: 1984
Award: Grand Prix