Burger King won for its already much-honored “Stevenage Challenge” by David, Madrid and Miami, which now has three Cannes Grand Prix honors. Mastercard won for its True Name campaign from McCann, New York.
True Name was a campaign that empowered transgender and nonbinary cardholders to use their chosen names on their credit cards, presenting the cards as one safe place for people who frequently feel unsafe amid harassment and violence directed at them elsewhere in their lives. Jury President Vicki Maguire, chief creative officer of Havas, U.K., described it as work that “touches you, that hits something, that you feel before you actually comprehend it.”
True Name was the type of brand activation that hasn’t happened much in marketing since decades ago, when packaged goods brands would “force distribution” by using national advertising to create so much demand for their items that retailers had no choice but to order.