Cape Town – On Wednesday Egg Films’ director Terence Neale became the first South African director ever to win a Grand Prix at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the world’s most prestigious advertising awards.
Terence won in the Entertainment for Music category for adidas Originals Original Is Never Finished, largely shot in South Africa for New York agency Johannes Leonardo with RSA Films, starring the likes of Snoop Dogg, basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and artist Petra Collins. Original Is Never Finished also picked up Bronze in the Entertainment category and was presented as a case study on the mainstage during Cannes Lions – an honour in itself.
The campaign’s success at Cannes is just the latest in a string of accolades: Original Is Never Finished won a Wooden Pencil at D&AD and Silver at the One Show, was nominated for a Webby, and is up for four Association of Independent Commercial Producers’ Awards. It has just under 25m views on YouTube.
This was the second year in a row that Terence has won at Cannes Lions, after his previous adidas Originals campaign won Gold for music in 2016.
“We feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to work on a brand like adidas, with an agency like Johannes Leonardo, who were so open and gave us such creative satisfaction,” says producer Rozanne Rocha-Gray.
Watch the ad here: