The Story of Classic

Classic is the story of our shared creative history as told by the Lion-winning work itself, much of it painstakingly restored and regraded from original film. Philip Thomas, CEO of Ascential Events, shares his view of what our Classic collection spanning 1954 to 2000 can offer to the business of creativity today.

You can’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been. In an industry that almost idolises The Future, the past can feel like another country -- and one really not worth visiting. But how is that sensible? It’s like saying a movie made in 1954 isn’t a good movie, or a novel from the 19th Century can’t be great; it’s patent nonsense.

Cannes Lions has the most amazing legacy, 70 years of history. We've effectively got the history of modern, post-war advertising - work that maybe you're not aware of. Maybe it was made before you were even born.

So we want to make all that available so that you can look back and really get something out of it. It’s what we stand for: the inspiration that creativity can bring and how that can drive business. The whole point is to see great work and see what's possible and see what you can do to improve the work you do. That's what Cannes Lions is all about. And that's what our digital platform, The Work is about.

So over the last two years, we have invested in the restoration and digitisation of selected Lion winners spanning 1954-2000, with a particular focus on Television and Cinema Lions (as they were known up until 1982), and the combined Film Lion category thereafter. Ads from the 1950s-1970s have been digitised from original 35mm film, and those from 1980s onwards from tape. But our archive is incomplete, so we’re looking for people to donate work(opens in a new tab) to our Classic project. We'd love to hear from you.

All the ads you’ll find in Classic are best-in-class for their time, validated by the same yardstick that Cannes Lions uses today. It celebrates the industry’s rich creative heritage and it brings back to life the very finest work of its time, introducing these ideas to inspire and challenge a new generation.