BBDO Guerrero Philippines’ Arnel Villanueva wins AdAge’s global cover design competition

BBDO Guerrero Philippines creative Arnel Villanueva has won the top prize for AdAge’s 10th annual young creatives competition to design AdAge’s Cannes special issue cover.

The brief asked to show the power of truthful representation in advertising.

Villanueva’s winning piece, entitled “The Imperfect Stunner,” outdid 714 entries from all over the world. The work features the Venus of Willendorf – an ancient figurine symbolizing fertility and womanhood – which showed a disproportionate and exaggerated body of a woman. The visual was placed at the steps of the Palais des Festivals et des Congres at Cannes.

When asked by AdAge what was the story behind the piece, Villanueva (pictured) shared his belief that the industry is now at a time and age where there are no ‘perfect’ body representations and that people have come to appreciate more messages that are authentic and more relatable.

BBDO Guerrero Creative Chairman David Guerrero said: “This is a tremendous honour for our agency and the country. Arnel displayed his unique talent as a creative in this competition and we are very proud of his achievement.”