Cannes Lions: Print & Publishing winners 2023 /

The Print & Publishing Grand Prix at Cannes has gone to Impact BBDO, Dubai, and news publication AnNahar for the second year running – this time for their Newspapers Inside the Newspaper campaign.

Recognised as one of the leading voices for ‘the truth’ in Lebanon, AnNahar has built a reputation of going to great lengths to defend freedom of speech and the rights of the Lebanese people. On 12 December 2022, the newspaper gave up six double spreads to now-defunct news publications, written by those newspapers’ former staff. 

The stunt drew attention to the corruption and political instability causing a crisis in Lebanon’s media sector, and gave oppressed journalists a platform for expression without censorship. The special edition also marked the anniversary of the assassination of former AnNahar editor-in-chief and politician Gebran Tueni, who criticised Syrian domination of Lebanon.

Impact BBDO’s CCO, Ali Rez, served as the president of the Print & Publishing jury, becoming the first Cannes jury president from the Mena region. He said that he left the judging room when the Newspapers Inside the Newspaper campaign was discussed, because it was created by his agency.

Rez explained that Newspapers Inside the Newspaper won the Grand Prix because it represented the power of print to amplify ideas.

‘Print has been and always will be the toughest medium to crack,’ he said. ‘It’s got the shortest amount of time to grab somebody, convince them, change their mind – and you’ve got to do it without bells and whistles.’ The jury was looking for entries that demonstrated the medium’s ability to move things powerfully, and authenticity in insight and execution, especially in the zeitgeist of generative AI, said Rez.

The Newspapers Inside the Newspaper campaign ‘proves the power of the medium’, ‘elevates everything we love about print’ and ‘transcends the category’, Rez said, with ‘bravery of thinking, no tricks, just brainwork – everything a Cannes Lions GP should be.’ Causing disruption is in the brand’s DNA, he added – AnNahar has lost writers to assassination and taken controversial stands. ‘Their existence is for their purpose, but at the end of the day they are a business and they need people to buy their product.’ 

The campaign resulted in the special edition selling out and the publication increased its subscriber base. On top of those results, AnNahar reinforced its credentials as a paper that stands for change, progress and freedom of expression.

Rez also commented on the overall health of the category, which has seen a decline in entries. ‘A large part of the world still reads newspapers in their millions,’ he said, arguing that print used in tandem with other media channels can be extremely powerful. This year’s entries were superior to previous years’, added Rez, who observed ‘a definite shift, a lot more exploration’ and so much award-worthy work that ‘nothing was awarded more than once’.

Impact BBDO Dubai also won the Print & Publishing Grand Prix at Cannes last year with another campaign for AnNahar Newspapers, which was called The Elections Edition.

Print & Publishing Gold Lions Winners / 

Prêt à voter, for Solar Impulse, by Publicis Conseil, Paris

The Artois Probability for Stella Artois, by Gut, Buenos Aires

We Didn’t Write This Campaign for NotMilk, by MRM Worldwide, Santiago

The Life Collection 2022 for Ikea, by Try, Oslo