CANNES, FRANCE – adobo Magazine Founder, President, and Editor-in-Chief Angel Guerrero witnessed a historic moment at the 2025 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity as David Lubars, a titan of modern advertising, received the Lion of St. Mark. In her field notes from the festival, Angel captures the emotion, energy, and enduring legacy of a creative visionary honored on the industry’s grandest stage.
Field notes from the Palais
David is the former Chief Creative Officer of BBDO, and he’s built a career that’s not just decorated — it’s legendary — with over 600 Lions to his name, including Grand Prix and Titanium Lions. He’s helped BBDO become Network of the Year seven times and Network of the Decade in 2020. But it’s more than the numbers — it’s his influence, his mentorship, and his belief in the craft that make him so deserving of this honor. David has consistently pushed the boundaries of what creativity can do, championing work that is bold, emotional, and unforgettable. His legacy lives not just in the awards, but in the teams and leaders he’s inspired, and the ideas that have shaped the culture.
Philip Thomas, Chair of the 2025 Cannes Lions, introduced the Cannes Lion of St. Mark:
“His career spans for more than four decades, and for much of that time, he hasn’t just been part of the industry. He’s been leading it on the history of his leadership. BBDO was named Cannes network of the year, and unprecedented seven times named network of the decade in 2020 and consistently delivering work to shape culture and set new creative boundaries. He was the driving force behind the ‘You’re not you when you’re hungry,’ for Snickers. The campaign that ran over 70 countries and picked up 47 Lions on itself, he brought HBO Voyeur, a piece of an immersive storytelling that turned viewers into participants and swept at Cannes with two Grand Prix and a shelf full of gold, silver and bronzes. And of course, this is BMW Films, the ground breaking branded entertainment series that didn’t just win the inaugural Titanium Lions, but actually inspired the entire category itself, and that work now also sits in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. David’s created vision has always blended innovation with emotion, finding new ways to tell stories that [move] and redefine what communications can really be. David has created the cultural thinker and a relentless champion of all ideas. Let’s take a moment to reflect on this extraordinary moment. Not just measured in Lions, but in the standard he set, the boundaries he broke and the legacy he left. It is with great pleasure that I present the 2025 Lion of St. Mark to David Lubars.”
Earlier in a session at the Lumiere Auditorium, Paul Kemp Robertson told David, “I think one of your most innovative achievements among many was so breakthrough, it actually helped to inspire a new category at Cannes Lions, which was the Titanium award, and that the principle behind that was to celebrate game changing ideas that redefine the boundaries of advertising. That is BMW films.”
Two pieces of advice stood out from David’s speech — lessons for anyone lucky enough to work alongside a great creative mind.
First: only the truth works
“It can’t just be, ‘This is cool, this is creative,’” David said. “You have to work with your planning team and your account team to extract the magical truth that the brand has. People can tell if you don’t have the truth.” It’s not about cleverness for its own sake. It’s about grounding ideas in something real, something resonant. “Truth,” he added, “is another way of saying: revealing the magic of the brand.”
Second: creativity is an economic multiplier
David spoke of the responsibility creatives carry — to move culture, yes, but also to move business. “We ask our audiences to fall in love with our clients by demonstrating real truth, by revealing what made the brand magic, by creating evidence and everything memorable.” That kind of creative excellence, he said, demands hunger. “You must enjoy advertising for people who want to be great.” And the truly great ones? “They make great things every year — creatively uncompromised, yet also loved by the masses.”
He closed his speech with humility.: “So tonight’s offer is a career pinnacle, a humbling win,” he said. “So I’ll just say thank you.”
