Cheers to 'The Barber Shop Girls'! Grey India scores the country's first Silver Lion at Cannes

Day 2 on the awards front looked much better than Day 1 for India. Grey India bagged the first Silver Lion for India, in the Entertainment Lions for Music category, for P&G’s Gillette ‘The Barber Shop Girls – Shaving Stereotypes’. Yashaswini Samat, MD, Grey Group India, tells ET, “Barber girls is a real story of how India is changing socially, especially for women. In the midst of all the bad news there are so many such stories that we should make bigger in media. They are heartening and they drive hope. For us it also builds the Gillette values around what being a man means in today’s world. And being from Bihar where the sohar music comes from, I absolutely love what the team has done with it.”

On why the entry won over judges, Paulette Long OBE, music consultant/board director/publisher, Paulette Long, United Kingdom and jury president for Entertainment Lions for Music, says “We loved its simplicity. The traditional song and the twist that it was given, made us wonder why something like this was not done earlier. Gillette has done it brilliantly.”

The big haul came from Wunderman Thompson India for Jimmy Nelson Foundation’s ‘Blink Test’ and ‘Blink Off ’, part of a campaign to preserve cultural diversity of communities across the world. It won five bronze Lions in the Industry Craft category.




Trevor Robinson OBE, founder & executive creative director, Quiet Storm, UK and jury president - Industry Craft, said, “There were some pieces of work that were touching and brilliantly done. The Jimmy Nelson Foundation work was one such. It JUST grabs your attention with its use of digital and brings to life a subject that you were not even aware of. There are few pieces in craft that you want to take home - this was one.” Meanwhile, Offroad Films won India’s only metal in Film Craft, a bronze Lion for Vicks’ ‘One in a million #TouchOfCare’ spot.

India managed to get a bunch of shortlists across Creative Data, Creative Strategy, Direct, Media, PR and Social and Influencer categories. The list includes Dentsu Webchutney’s work for food-delivery app Swiggy, with eight shortlists. It’s also the only Indian agency shortlisted in the fairly new category — Social & Influencer. Mindshare has two shortlists in Creative Data, a category where India usually draws a blank.

But the media agency’s work ‘The Inflection Alert System’ for Hindustan Unilever qualified for the final round. It’s also shortlisted in Media Lions. Lowe Lintas, Grey India, Google India, Mindshare, Ogilvy, Leo Burnett, and Cheil are the other companies that bagged shortlists for India.

Publicis Singapore’s ‘Touch Of Care’ campaign for P&G’s Vicks that ran in India got two shortlists in the newly created Creative Strategy category. Dentsu Webchutney’s ‘Code Name: URI – The Surgical Strike’ for the film failed to convert its shortlist to a Lion in the Entertainment category. However, the work’s shortlisted again in PR Lions.