The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has chosen David Lubars, former chief creative officer of BBDO Worldwide, to receive its lifetime achievement award, the Lion of St Mark, at the Festival in June.
In a career spanning more than 40 years, Lubars has won more than 600 Lions, and under his creative leadership, BBDO achieved remarkable success, including being named Network of the Year at Cannes Lions a record-setting seven times, leading it to win Network of the Decade in 2020.
Lubars has been the creative mind behind some of the most awarded work at Cannes Lions. This includes You’re Not You When You’re Hungry for Snickers, a campaign that has been activated in over 70 countries and grew market share in 56 of the 58 markets where it ran in its first year. Since its launch at the 2010 Super Bowl, the campaign has picked up 47 Lions. Under his watch, HBO Voyeur, turned viewers into essential players within the story, won two Grands Prix, five Gold, two Silver and one Bronze Lion in a single year.
Lubars started his career in 1982 as a copywriter at Leonard Monahan Saabye before moving to Chiat\Day LA as a writer for Apple. A few years later, he returned to Leonard Monahan, this time as a partner to build Leonard Monahan Lubars, before moving on to lead BBDO West as CEO and chief creative officer. In 1998, Lubars took on the top creative job at Fallon in Minneapolis, where he made some of his best-known work, including BMW Films. In 2004, he returned to BBDO, where he remained at the helm for 20 years until announcing his retirement last year.
Simon Cook, CEO, LIONS, stated, “Throughout his career, David has been a true force for creativity. We have welcomed him onto our Juries seven times – five of those as Jury President, and his ground-breaking piece of work for BMW served as a catalyst for the creation of the Titanium Lions. The Hire went on to win our inaugural Titanium Lion, a piece of work so iconic that it is part of MoMA’s permanent collection in New York City. As a creative leader, he has shaped the industry landscape, and his visionary creativity has resulted in some of the world’s most impactful and compelling work. We’re delighted to be recognising David’s expansive body of work and significant contribution to the industry at Cannes Lions this year.”
Lubars commented, “Great brands and companies are brilliant, high-quality, and deliver on their promises. They possess a certain kind of magic, but one not always expressed. The goal for me was to surface that magic, mine it, turn it into something tangible a client could grab onto and run with around the world. You do that by injecting effervescent creative air into the culture rather than mediocre media pollution. You surprise people, you delight people; they fall in love. It’s that simple and that challenging. It’s the thing the fantastic clients and agency partners I worked with for 43 years were always chasing. And it’s why Cannes is Cannes.”
David Lubars will receive the Lion of St Mark at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. He will also speak onstage in the Lion of St Mark seminar, taking place on Friday 20 June. Cannes Lions runs from 16 to 20 June, in Cannes, France.
