Cannes: Special Group, Orcon Win Direct Grand Prix

A campaign for broadband provider Orcon featuring Iggy Pop rocked the Direct Lions here in Cannes tonight, winning the Grand Prix for agency Special Group in Auckland, New Zealand. The 30 member Direct jury, the largest in Cannes history, also awarded 19 gold Lions, 23 silvers and 30 bronzes out of a field of almost 1,500 submissions.
  Orcon ran away with it, according to jury head Pablo Alzugaray, CEO of Spanish agency Shackleton. Orcon created a contest in which the winners helped the godfather of Punk rerecord his hit song "The Passenger" via webcam, and appeared alongside him while making the video. The results played out in real time, but at every stage of the contest, few could resist getting jiggy with Iggy. See a video of the campaign, and more Direct Lions results, after the jump.

 The category proved hospitable for the whole region Down Under: Six of the golds went to Australian agencies, including "Nothing Soft Gets In" for Toyota from Saatchi & Saatchi in Sydney and "Support Scent" on behalf of Guide Dogs Australia from Clemenger BBDO in Melbourne. Other gold winners included "World's Biggest Sign Post" for Nokia from Farfar in Sweden and "Eternal Moonwalk" for Studio Brussels from MortierBrigade in Brussels, Belgium.

  "Auditorium" for Heineken from JWT Milan, which has been widely awarded this season, won a silver. "Choose a Different Ending," an anti-knife campaign for The Metropolitan Police from Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO in London won a bronze.
"Hardchorus" for Puma from Droga5 in New York also got a bronze, the single award for a U.S. agency.