Cannes resolves controversy surrounding ‘Lucky Iron Fish’
‘Lucky Iron Fish,’ this year’s product design ‘Grand Prix’ winner at Cannes Lions, has been wrapped up in controversy after some have questioned whether or not Geometry Global-Dubai and Memac Ogilvy MENA deserved the win since the agencies didn’t design the product themselves.
Geometry Global claims that it misunderstood that there could only be one entrant company across all categories, so it entered into the ‘Product Design’ category on behalf of Lucky Iron Fish and was therefore named ‘entrant company.’
Yet it acknowledged that the product design and prototype were designed by Lucky Iron Fish – Geometry Global just helped introduce the item to a wider audience.
“We now understand that Product Design could have been entered directly by Lucky Iron Fish without Geometry Global and Memac Ogilvy as an 'entrant company,’” the agency said in a statement.
It added that it has agreed with Cannes Lions that the Lucky Iron Fish should be the sole recipient of the award.
An official statement from Cannes reads: “From our perspective, as the organisers of Cannes Lions, this satisfies the requirements of the competition and closes the matter.”
Gavin Armstrong, president and CEO of the Lucky Iron Fish company, said in a statement: ““Based on my understanding of the entry mechanism at the Cannes Lions festival, we gave Geometry Global approval to be the entrant for all Lucky Iron Fish entries, with full credit to Lucky Iron Fish and other participating entities. There has been no intention to misrepresent the role of Geometry Global or the campaign in the entry or any communications.”
The ‘Lucky Iron Fish’ is a product that can be put into skillets and pans while cooking to help battle iron deficiency. It was developed to give Cambodians more access to iron to since their diet of primarily fish and rice contains very little of it.