Adidas took home the top prize in the Entertainment Lions category at the 2026 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, winning the Grand Prix for its collaboration with British rock band Oasis.
The campaign, titled "Original Forever," was developed by New York agency Johannes Leonardo and Adidas London. According to Variety, the entry was chosen from a field of 656 total submissions. The festival's Entertainment Lions award is designed to celebrate creativity that turns branded content into culture.
The campaign description explained the strategy directly: drawing on Adidas's cultural legacy with Oasis, the brand partnered with the band to create official tour merchandise and what the entry called "indelible cultural moments to build fandom." The partnership also won a Grand Prix in the Entertainment Lions for Music category, giving Adidas two top prizes from the same campaign.
The business case behind the work was substantial. Adidas reported that the Oasis collaboration contributed to a 12% increase in lifestyle revenues for the brand in 2025, alongside double-digit growth for its Originals line.
Jury president Chris Beresford-Hill, worldwide chief creative officer at BBDO Worldwide, described the decision. "Choosing a Grand Prix was difficult, but in the end one piece of work stood apart because it understood the moment perfectly," he said. "At a time when so many brands are trying to manufacture relevance, this was a reminder that the most powerful thing a brand can do is show up in the right moment, for the right community, with something worth caring about."
Other major winners at the festival included Clash Royale's "Copycats Welcome" campaign, which took the Entertainment Lions for Gaming Grand Prix. The work was described as blending brand film, community activism, and interactive gaming experience. Spanish artist Rosalía won an Entertainment Lions for Music Grand Prix for a project tied to a Berghain performance featuring Björk and Yves Tumor.
The Sport Grand Prix went to "The Thousand Sponsors of Muni" for Peruvian football club Club Deportivo Municipal, a campaign that turned supporters into sponsors and generated what organizers described as a national conversation. The Design Grand Prix was awarded to TBWA Media Arts Lab for its Apple TV rebrand, while the Digital Craft Grand Prix went to Google for Project Genie, described as a first-of-its-kind application of the Genie 3 model connecting DeepMind research to a consumer interface.
