5 Controversies Cannes Lions Would Rather Forget

A 6:00 p.m. email from jury chief Marc Tutssel told the tale: “Hi, I have just been informed that the Grand Prix Scrabble campaign was entered in 2008,” the veteran Leo Burnett adman told his fellow voters. “As a result I am upgrading the Billboard [magazine] campaign to Grand Prix, I just wanted to urgently inform you before this evening.”

4. Creepy air conditioning

In 2011, Brazilian shop Moma Propaganda touted the AC in the Kia Sportage with a steamy cartoon ad depicting a pubescent female student asking her goatish male teacher for an anatomy lesson. Ostensibly created for Kia Motors Brazil, the ad took two awards at Cannes—until it emerged that they’d never run.

Shortly after, Kia Motors America stated it had “no business relationship” with the agency. “The ad is undoubtedly inappropriate,” the statement continued, “and on behalf of Kia Motors we apologize to those who have been offended by it.”

5. The year of Brazilian blunders

While the 2025 awards would turn heads with the forfeited Bronze-winning campaign from LePub São Paulo for New Balance—one that New Balance didn’t know had been submitted—the notoriety trophy goes to another snafu out of São Paulo.

Agency DM9’s work for appliance brand Consul’s “Efficient Way to Pay” program won a Grand Prix that year—until Cannes officials discovered AI-altered CNN footage in the case study.

DM9 copped to “a series of errors.”