Oli + Josie are Copywriter Oli Frost and Art Director Josephine Shedden. Both are currently on placement with AMV BBDO in London after spending time at Anomaly, Droga5, Mother, BBH, et cetera.
The two recently created the “Grand Prix Generator,” an amusing piece of self-promotion tied to a certain celebrity-filled, coke-fueled festival of indulgence currently distracted by its own reflection somewhere in France.
The duo’s case study (click here) frames the project as a humanitarian service of sorts for “deprived creatives”–the millions, or at least dozens, of frustrated agency staffers who have somehow managed to get to THIS POINT in their careers without winning a single Grand Prix. The duo created a website and tweeted it; R/GA was nice enough to share; the rest is advertising.
Since the work that wins the grandest prize always seems to be tied to one social cause or another, the generator itself effectively matches a heartwarming/exploitative scenario with the tools required to make Cannes juries salivate on cue.
We can’t embed the videos, so you’ll have to click through. But we’re glad to give a bit more attention to the people who came up with these and other smashing campaigns:
- “Free the neglected sad kittens” with the help of an unnamed insurance company and a Spotify livestream
- “Help the gay bald monkeys” with a digital billboard promoting a toilet cleaner brand
- “Protect the gay poor seals” via an interactive music video somehow tied to pasta sauce
The project’s algorithm plays on a basic formula: millions of X are still Y and Z, so our agency partnered with A to create a B and a C. The world was changed.
Quite a few agency folk have amused themselves with the Generator since Oli + Josie began tweeting it out a week ago while hoping that their similarly ridiculous campaigns might just be deemed worthy by a jury of their peers:
SAVE THE ASTHMATIC BADGERS. #CannesLions Grand Prix Generator – http://t.co/p4JPtFYVxm via @hellocreatives
— Matt & Dave (@akacreatives) June 19, 2015
Hilarious > #Cannes Grand Prix Generator (via @joakimborgstrom) http://t.co/Vh3rWt5PNx
— ⚙ Fernando Barbella (@Grizzluza) June 22, 2015
This is brilliant!! Create award winning work with a click: http://t.co/0M6WMeeZIZ #GeometryCannes #CannesLions
— Geometry Global (@GeometryGlobal) June 22, 2015
How far from reality are these fake Grand Prix winners? You know the answer.
We reached out to Oli + Josie for more, and they let us know that they want to apologize to any baby dolphins who may have been offended.