Thai Agency’s ‘Unusual’ Pitch Wins Cannes Lions Design Grand Prix

Children play on an irregular football field in Bangkok’s Khlong Toei district.

BANGKOK — A feel-good marketing campaign about Khlong Toei’s non-standard football pitches brought a Thai agency the kingdom’s first Grand Prix at an advertising awards show in Cannes, France.

Among 278 entries, Thai real estate developer AP Thai and advertising agency CJ Worx on Wednesday night picked up the Grand Prix award in design category at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the global event for those working in the creative communications and advertising fields.

It’s the first Grand Prix to go to Thailand since the festival debuted in 1954.

Read: Pitch Imperfect: Khlong Toei Slums Get Funky Football Fields

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It’s an amazing piece. It’s so smart. It’s simple. It’s purposeful …,” jury president Sandra Planeta said. “It’s about creating use where there were [sic] none.”

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Apart from the prestigious Grand Prix, the football field also took a Silver Lion in the outdoor category and a Bronze Lion for entertainment.

The irregular football pitch is located in a squalorous and densely populated area in Bangkok’s Khlong Toei district, where empty spaces between tenements were transformed football pitches for community use, regardless of size or shape.