Three from Asia make the shortlist for the Cannes Glass: The Lion for Change
Cannes has named 28 entries on the Glass: The Lion for Change Shortlist. Three entries from Asia have made the cut. They are:
ASUNIWA “SATO”, DENTSU DIGITAL TOKYO
The agency revealed the shocking projection in a presentation with the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare: “By 2531, all Japanese people will have the surname ‘Sato'”.But data alone wasn’t enough we needed politicians, opinion formers and the wider public to see and feel how ridiculous, dystopian and disempowering a world of shared identity would be. Dentsu Digital persuaded 40 companies to join us to show the world what Japan 2531 would look like. Companies changed their logos and packaging to “Sato,” popular musicians, such as AI Kawashima, adopted the name “Sato”, and sports team, Tokyo BB, switched their uniforms to name every player “Sato.”This sparked consumers’ curiosity, who wondered, “Why ‘Sato’?” The agency directed them to a website where we explained how Japan’s marriage system is leading to the extinction of surnames. They also presented their findings to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.
HERALBONY, DENTSU INC TOKYO & HERALBONY
HERALBONY discovered a potential source of commercialization for the works of artists with intellectual disabilities when they noticed a common element found in such art: repetition, which often results in highly expressive patterns. This stems from the artist’s strong preference for routine and repetitive behavior due to their disability. HERALBONY considered such works easy to reconfigure into designs that could be applied to a variety of objects and spaces.
Furthermore, by helping the artists copyright these designs, HERALBONY was able to not only apply them to their own fashion and lifestyle products but also license their usage to companies and municipalities for a variety of collaborative projects.
It was a paradigm-shifting idea that took the work of artists with intellectual disabilities outside of the museum and spread it to the wider public, in the process increasing its social value.
MOBILINK BANK “THE INVISIBLE HEIRS”, VEON – MOBILINK BANK
The creative idea behind Invisible Heirs was to visually manifest the erasure of women from inheritance. Instead of abstract statistics, the campaign used haunting imagery; a bride half-seen in a wedding photo, a daughter fading from an attorney’s office – forcing audiences to confront the stark reality of exclusion.This metaphor of invisibility wasn’t just aesthetic but strategic. It made an unseen issue impossible to ignore, ensuring the emotional weight of loss was felt before the solution was introduced. The inheritance calculator in the Dost App became more than a tool; it was a way to reclaim presence, rights, and agency. By combining disappearance with discovery, the campaign didn’t just raise awareness – it provided a means for change. The execution blurred the lines between advocacy, technology, and storytelling, transforming a deeply personal injustice into a shared societal reckoning. It wasn’t just about inheritance; it was about making women unignorable.
View the shortlist here.
