Piercing

Why it works

A small Oslo piercing studio with almost no budget won the first Outdoor Grand Prix ever awarded at Cannes. Leo Burnett Oslo photographed close-ups of a chin, a tongue, an eyebrow, an ear and a belly button, then pasted the posters in public places so that nails, rings and other fixtures already on the walls poked through the paper exactly where a piercing would sit. No media space was bought; the street supplied the jewellery. It is studied as a model of ambient thinking, in which placement is the idea and the poster is unfinished until the wall completes it. In 2002, the first year Cannes gave Press and Outdoor separate Grand Prix, all six executions made the shortlist and the campaign took the top award, though Ad Age's Stefano Hatfield dismissed the win as a cheap stunt. It had already won gold at Eurobest and went on to a One Show Gold Pencil.