A short film celebrating the Sydney Opera House’s 50th anniversary has won at the Cannes Lions, considered the world’s most prestigious advertising awards.
Satirically titled Play it Safe, the 2023 campaign collected one of two Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions international festival of creativity awards last week.
The jury president, Apple executive Tor Myhren, said the Opera House campaign, created by marketing firm Accenture Song and its subsidiary company The Monkeys, was a fitting homage to the unique architecture of Sydney’s most recognisable landmark.
Play It Safe was “a celebration of the creative spirit, of brave ideas and taking huge risks in the face of critics and controversy and cultural norms”, the judge’s statement said.
“Quite simply, it’s the best film of the year and makes you proud to be in this industry.”
The four-minute film, directed by US-based Australian director Kim Gehrig, features comedian and performer Tim Minchin singing the virtues of conformity, as archival footage shows the Sydney Opera House taking shape on Bennelong Point.
He is gradually joined by a cast of hundreds, including members of the house’s leading performing arts companies, singers Jimmy Barnes and Ziggy Ramo, actor John Bell, drag queen Courtney Act, Indigenous composer William Barton and singer Kate Ceberano performing atop the building’s highest sails.
Cameos from archival footage include the late Queen Elizabeth II, Nelson Mandela, Pope John Paul II and Dame Joan Sutherland performing on the Opera House stage.
Among the tongue in cheek wisdom Minchin imparts to his audience is “if you want to last the distance take the path of least resistance” and “save the weird ideas for the Danish”.
In a behind the scenes interview on the Sydney Opera House’s website, Minchin said the campaign was “a monument to bravery, to artistic ambition, to pushing through the voices that said ‘this is a folly’, or ‘art doesn’t matter’… the building acts as a metaphor for what you can do within yourself if you just take a risk and stick your neck out.”
Last week’s award is the third collected at Cannes for Gehrig, who was recognised in 2010 for her Amnesty International campaign and in 2015 for her women’s sport campaign for Sport England.
Play it Safe shared the Grand Prix with the French entry WoMen’s Football, showing what appears to be the skill of the national men’s French football before revealing it is actually the prowess of the women’s national side disguised as men through deepfake technology.
• This article was amended on 25 June 2024. A previous version misquoted the lyrics of Tim Minchin’s song.
