Cannes Lions and Facebook launch ‘Classic’ – a curated collection of Lion-winning work

Cannes Lions has today announced the launch of Classic, a curated collection of the very best Lion-winning work, spanning 1954 – 2000. Classic, in partnership with Facebook, is available for free on intelligence platform The Work.

A Classic documentary launches alongside the collection, and debuts as part of LIONS Live, the new digital experience from Cannes Lions, on Monday 22 June 2020 at 15:30 BST. The film provides a cinematic moment to step back through the creative history of Lion-winning work and the Festival’s 66 year-long legacy, featuring commentary from revered industry names including DDB’s Ari Weiss, Isobar’s Jean Lin and McCann’s Prasoon Joshi.

Cannes Lions collaborated with Cinelab to painstakingly restore and regrade much of the work in the collection from the original film. Classic already contains over 900 restored films, but Cannes Lions is sending a call out to the creative community for further submissions. Details on how to Donate Work can be found on the dedicated page. The very best Lion-winning work from the last century can be suggested to become part of this very special collection.

To bring Classic into the current moment, LIONS Live has launched the Social Challenge Recreate Classic for 2020 competition. Entrants can select from one of five iconic, Grands Prix winning Lion campaigns and reimagine the work for Instagram in a clever new execution. Whether it’s a witty modern parody or a nostalgic homage, there is creative freedom to reinterpret the original using video, illustrations, images and text. Full competition details can be found on the competition page.

Says Philip Thomas, chairman, Cannes Lions: “Our community is quite rightly focused on the future, towards what’s coming next. But Classic offers a chance to reflect on our shared creative history and to take inspiration from the business-driving creativity of the past. We welcome you to join us in our journey to complete this celebration of iconic creativity by submitting your work.”

The Competition

Social Challenge Recreate Classic for 2020 competition.

The Challenge.

We want you to pick an iconic campaign. It can be a commercial or an activation, everything counts as long as it is saved in the collective consciousness as a memorable piece of creativity. Think Sony and their millions of colour balls taking over the streets of San Francisco, Red bull launching a man to the stratosphere, Apple going full Orwell in their 1984 Superbowl ad; ‘Think small’ like Volkswagen, ‘think big’ like Imax or just ‘think’ like IBM.

Then, we want you to remake it using INSTAGRAM as the modern day medium. Whether it is a clever new execution, a hilarious parody or a nostalgic homage, you have total freedom to re-interpret, re-imagine or re-master the original campaign, as long as you use enough elements from it, so it is clear that the new piece is a cover from the original.

Please submit in STORY format (video, illustrations, static images are all okay) 1080 x 1920.

The Reward.

The remake campaigns will be launched through LIONS Live, in July 2020, and run throughout August, reaching the Cannes Lions community around the globe on Instagram. The best campaigns will be chosen for full Instagram features – where YOU the creative will get to take over our stories to discuss your work and take questions from our audience.

Submission Process.

You can post directly on social and tag us directly (@Cannes_Lions and use the hashtag #CannesClassicChallenge) or email your submissions to classicchallenge@canneslions.com for the chance to be featured.