25 April 2023 – Good things come in threes, the saying goes. For young creatives, Bernice Puleng Mosala and Raphael Janan Kuppasamy from agency Joe Public Johannesburg, never have truer words been spoken. Having won the Ster-Kinekor Cannes Young Lions competition in 2020, but with travel plans scuppered when Covid cancelled out the Cannes International Festival of Creativity that year, their dream has been answered this year.
This week, their entry into the 2023 Cannes Young Lions – Film Category competition for South Africa, sponsored by Cannes official local representative Ster-Kinekor, was judged the winner. So, this year they will find themselves at the world’s most prestigious celebration of creativity in Cannes, France in June.
“Winning this competition means so much to us. To be honest, we’re still in disbelief. And, after not being able to attend the last in-person event when we won in 2020, this means even more to us,” said the duo. “We have been creative partners since 2019, and we’ve been entering the Cannes Young Lions competition together since 2020, so we’ve really learnt to play on each other’s strengths and weaknesses.”
The Young Lions competition gives the next generation of industry creatives the chance to prove themselves under immense pressure, answering a charity brief to produce an advert in just 48 hours, from brief to finished product, with the theme: ‘Teen suicide shouldn’t be a secret’.
Lynne Wylie, Chief Marketing Officer of Ster-Kinekor, says the more than 80 entries received were of a high standard in response to the brief. “We are privileged to represent the Cannes Festival locally and sponsor the Young Lions competition. We partnered with the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG) and the theme focused on the prevention of teenage suicide.
“While this is a sensitive topic, we were so impressed with how the teams tackled the brief. Selecting the final winner from the shortlisted entries proved to be a difficult task for the panel of judges that comprised some esteemed creative minds. As it turned out, we are of course delighted that Bernice and Raphael’s entry was the winner, and we can now honour the prize they should have won in 2020, together with this year’s prize!”
The creative teams of two had just 48 hours from brief to film, edit and produce a 30, 45 or 60-second commercial. SADAG wished to convey a message about safely engaging young people in communicating about mental health and suicide, thereby reducing the stigma, normalising mental health check-ins, and talking about mental health and suicide openly and without shame.
The panel of judges comprised Pete Khoury – TBWA; Clare Trafankowska – Dentsu; Bruce Murphy – ex McCann; Krystle Kemp – SADAG; and Brad Knowles – aHead Marketing Services.
Representing SADAG, Krystle Kemp said SADAG was humbled to be invited to be part of this year’s Ster-Kinekor Cannes Young Lions competition. “Mental health is often stigmatised and considered a taboo subject. To have this opportunity to highlight and create more awareness around mental health, as well as the help that is available to those in need, was a privilege.
“The calibre of entries was incredible. As SADAG, we were blown away by the creative, relevant and hard-hitting messages the shortlisted finalists put into their entries. Getting to see the creative executions put together by young individuals who really seemed to understand the importance of mental health and awareness was so inspirational and touching. We are grateful to all the teams for their work, immense effort and research as the campaigns were all unique and impactful. It was an amazing opportunity to be part of this – congratulations to the winners.”
Talking about their winning entry, Bernice and Raphael said they love to create work that makes a difference and touches people’s lives. “Mental health is close to both of our hearts so creating this piece was important to us. We even stayed up for the last 30 hours of the competition to make sure that everything was aligned to our vision of helping young people connect with SADAG to overcome mental health issues.
”The insight behind our idea is that young people do a lot of ‘talking’ online, but they don’t actually speak about what is bothering them. This led to our concept which was to showcase how much one person texts, comments and types in a day without actually saying anything about how they really feel. Ultimately, we wanted to communicate that for a generation that shares so much, maybe we need to share more.”
As the team to make the final cut, they will go on to represent South Africa at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity – Young Lions competition, taking place from 19 – 23 June, with their trip fully sponsored by Ster-Kinekor. There, Bernice and Raphael will be up against other winning teams from around the world to compete for the ultimate honour of being crowned this year’s Film Young Lions.
“We’re so excited to attend the Cannes International Festival of Creativity and soak up as much knowledge and creative inspiration as we can. It’s a dream come true to compete on a global stage in the Cannes Young Lions competition. We don’t quite know what to expect but we know that we will give the competition our all and hopefully make the South African advertising industry proud,” commented Bernice and Raphael.
ABOUT THE WINNING TEAM:
Raphael Kuppasamy is an Integrated Art Director and Bernice Mosala is an Integrated Copywriter at Joe Public Johannesburg.
Raphael graduated with a BA in Creative Brand Communications specialising in Visual Communications from Vega in 2019.
Bernice graduated with a BA in Creative Brand Communications specialising in Copywriting from Vega in 2019. She will graduate with a BA Honours in Creative Writing from the University of Witwatersrand in 2023.
Both Raphael and Bernice were awarded scholarships to study and complete their degrees – they want other young people, whose families may be struggling financially, to know that anything is possible.