Wieden+Kennedy's 2025 Cannes Contenders

McDonald's - Not Not a Big Mac​

Wieden+Kennedy: Gen Z loves reinvention, so when McDonald’s US released the Chicken Big Mac for the first time, we knew our audience.

Big problem: Gen Z doesn’t watch ads.

But…they do watch hours and hours of Kai Cenat on Twitch.

So, for a Chicken Big Mac that was NOT NOT a Big Mac, instead of making another ad Gen Z would ignore, for over a month we turned Kai Cenat’s stream into a Chicken Big Mac ad that looked nothing like an ad.

It was NOT NOT an ad.

Here are some highlights: We dropped the sandwich live on stream with a marching band, John Cena delivered the year's most-watched motivational speech, we resurrected beloved show iCarly for a live episode, started a huge online debate – and much more.

It didn’t just work, it became Twitch’s most watched QSR campaign ever. Pretty good for an ad that's NOT NOT an ad.

Heinz - Every Sauce

Wieden+Kennedy: Instead of just telling people about Heinz’s range of sauces, we decided to show them, with a bold and surprisingly tasty combination of all fourteen of their sauces. We called it ‘Every Sauce’.

The result is a hard-hitting advert disguised as a product. Holding within itself the information we wanted to communicate: one sauce that promoted their entire range of sauces.

For the bottle, we created a first-of-its-kind scratchable label, revealing the list of sauces in ‘Every Sauce’.

With only 100 bottles available to consumers, we wanted to ensure they ended up in the right hands. So we created a microsite where only those most sauce-obsessed could enter a competition to win a bottle.

62,000 people signed up for a chance to get their hands on the sauce, and we awarded it to 100 lucky winners in the UK, leaving thousands of hopefuls asking for more.

Heinz - It Has To Be...

Wieden+Kennedy: Instead of describing Heinz's taste, each ad is designed to trigger memories of the unmistakable taste of Heinz, and the feeling of anticipation it creates.

Featuring striking macro photography, each image celebrates a classic Heinz product. A swirl of ketchup, a dollop of mayo—designed to make your mouth-water, and your brain to crave the food pairing to complete the experience.

In a clever twist on its famous ‘It Has to Be Heinz’ tagline, the brand name has been replaced with the food that completes the pairing. Even with no brand, logo or pack, pre-testing showed over 70% of consumers still identified Heinz instantly. Proving that the anticipation Heinz creates is second nature.

“It Has to Be” breaks the conventions of its medium to prove that Heinz isn’t just a brand—it’s a reflex. Its recognition is instinctive. And when it comes to taste, there’s only one answer: It has to be Heinz.

Uber Eats - Checoland

Wieden+Kennedy: In a highly competitive market, Uber Eats sought to be the delivery brand most closely associated with delivering a wide range of products to Mexican consumers. The message was clear: Uber Eats can now deliver almost anything, not only restaurant orders.

So, we partnered with the only person who can help us to deliver our new positioning: Mexican Formula 1 driver Sergio “Checo” Pérez, the man with the most endorsements in the country.

Nike - Mexico City Marathon

Wieden+Kennedy: Nike doesn’t just support athletes; it pushes them to go further.

For the 2024 Mexico City Marathon—an event officially sponsored by another brand that shall not be named—we saw an opportunity to strategically position Nike at the forefront of the race and drive the conversation without being an official sponsor.

Our idea was simple yet bold: turn the entire 42-kilometer course into a Nike-branded motivational experience. We secured nearly every available OOH placement, from bus stops to full-building billboards, creating a city-wide takeover that spoke directly to runners as they raced.

Inspired by real runner insights, each placement was designed to match the mental and physical state of participants at different points in the race. Unlike traditional sports campaigns filled with generic encouragement, we spoke to runners the Nike way—with blunt, no-excuses, tough-love messaging.

Nike - So Win

Wieden+Kennedy: In this 60-second film, Nike’s next generation of athlete icons (A’ja Wilson, Caitlin Clark, Sha’Carri Richardson, Sabrina Ionescu, Jordan Chiles, Alexia Putellas, Aryna Sabalenka, and Juju Watkins) remind the world women don’t need permission to win. It’s shot in visually-arresting portrait style, and undercut with footage of their incredible athletic performances to the soundtrack of Led Zeppelin “Whole Lotta Love.” The voiceover (Grammy-winning rapper and former gymnast, Doechii) lists everything women are told they can’t do, before ending with: YOU CAN’T WIN. SO WIN.

Nike - Winning Isn't For Everyone

Wieden+Kennedy: Nike built their brand around the winning mentality. Problem is, a shift had happened culturally. Having a winning mentality was no longer celebrated; it was shamed: If you want your child to win, you’re a bad parent. If you want to win, you’re a bad person. If you do everything to win, you’re toxic and your priorities are out of whack.

This Olympics, Nike set out to remind the world there’s nothing wrong with wanting to win. Because every athlete knows: If you don’t want to win, you’ve already lost.

Our anthem went straight at the tension, reminding the world having a winning mentality doesn’t make you a bad person. If you didn’t like what you saw or heard, well, “WINNING ISN’T FOR EVERYONE.”

In the end, Nike got the world’s attention again and set Nike’s brand and business up to win again. 

Nike - Winning Isn't Comfortable 

Wieden+Kennedy: This campaign launched just in time for marathon season with three films titled “Sunshine”, “Morning” and “Joy”, each one showing the love and hate relationship with running from a different angle. The fourth film, “Stairs”, aired the day after the Chicago marathon — showing the all-too-real aches and pains of walking down the stairs after running 26.2 miles.

Ford - Charge Around the Globe

Wieden+Kennedy: Inspired by Ford’s legacy, Charge Around the Globe reimagined Aloha Wanderwell’s expedition. A century ago, she became the first woman to drive around the world—in a Ford Model T. Now, travel creator and influencer Lexie Limitless, known as the youngest person to visit every country, took on the challenge and set a new world record as the first person to circumnavigate the globe in an EV. Like Aloha, once again in a Ford—this time, the all-electric Explorer.
Over 200 days, across six continents and 30,000+ km, Lexie documented every real-world charging challenge and shared how she overcame them with her followers on social—reaching over 200M views.

BAFTA-winning director Chris Faith condensed 350+ hours of unscripted content into a three-part Prime Video docuseries of 50-minute episodes, earning Critic’s Choice recognition, 9.7M+ minutes streamed, and global PR—using non-fiction branded entertainment to prove Ford’s EV capabilities.

Netflix - You’re Not Ready for What’s Next

Wieden+Kennedy: We were tasked with launching Netflix’s 2025 content slate. It wasn’t enough to just announce titles: This was an opportunity to reinvent the entertainment industry’s tired yearly launch. So, we created a film that gave fans the anticipation they crave, and disrupted the category entirely.

Our hero film, “You’re Not Ready for What’s Next,” took a fresh approach, seamlessly blending 25 Netflix titles into one unexpected narrative. It follows a bored office worker sneakily watching Netflix, only for it to overtake her world. 30+ Easter eggs teased upcoming titles through props, backgrounds, and interactive details, like artful book covers and a Stranger Things poster with a working phone number for the Hawkins Police Department. The film premiered at 20 global press events, including a movie theater screening in Roblox. Ultimately, fans didn’t just watch the ad; they rewound, dissected, and devoured every frame, extending this film far beyond the screen.

Doordash - DoorDash-All-The-Ads

Wieden+Kennedy: Last year's Titanium Grand Prix winner. To break through the Super Bowl 2024 clutter, we knew we needed an innovative approach that made our campaign unmissable on game day across our priority platforms—TikTok, Instagram, and X.

Our Dashspondent let the world in on DoorDash’s unreal commitment and updated on all the prizes being added to our cart. As ads aired, we quickly chose a prize in real time, comped up an image, wrote tweet copy, and fired off posts all game long in an ever-growing prize Thread on X. And after our spot, Lonnie helped fans unravel the code on TikTok and Instagram live.

Fans and brands commented on the absurdity of the items and pined for a chance to win them all in the biggest DoorDash cart ever. We ended up with a mega thread of prizes delivered to the person who entered our 1,813 character long promo code correctly.