Two-time Oscar winner Ben Proudfoot goes to want extra room in his trophy case.
The filmmaker is coming back from Europe with a number of Cannes Lions for his documentary The Closing Copy of Ilon Specht, a movie concerning the lady who created the long-lasting L’Oréal Paris tagline, “As a result of I’m value it.”
These 4 phrases, penned within the early Nineteen Seventies by Specht as a younger copywriter for the advert company McCann-Erickson (now McCann), “empowered generations of ladies globally,” McCann notes, “and helped to construct L’Oréal Paris into the most important magnificence model on this planet.”
The brief movie’s 5 honors on the 2025 Cannes Lions Worldwide Pageant of Creativity embody the Grand Prix for Movie; Gold for Leisure, Silver for Leisure, PR, and a Bronze for Movie Craft – the latter award recognizing the work of editors Mónica Salazar and Tim Johnson. Proudfoot shot the movie with Specht within the final months of her life. She died of most cancers in Might 2024 on the age of 81.
TRAVERSE32/Breakwater Studios
“Many gifted fingers formed this movie, however this extraordinary recognition belongs to at least one individual: Ilon Specht,” Proudfoot mentioned. “She remodeled promoting perpetually along with her phrases however by no means gained a Lion—till now. I hope this satisfaction of Lions and Grand Prix finds her. A worthy, if belated, triumph. Thanks to the jury, and to L’Oréal Paris, McCann, and TRAVERSE32 for doing what few dare to do: fully belief the filmmakers. That was the magic. As Ilon mentioned, ‘It’s about people. It’s not about promoting. It’s about caring for individuals.’”
To at the present time, “As a result of I’m value it” stays core to the L’Oréal Paris model, translated into greater than 50 languages for markets all over the world. L’Oréal calls these phrases “a rallying cry for self-affirmation, identification, and company.”
“Ilon Specht was greater than only a copywriter, she was a visionary,” Delphine Viguier-Hovasse, world model president of L’Oréal Paris, noticed. “She defied the norms of her time with one daring assertion that become a world motion. I’m grateful to our companions at McCann who’ve helped deliver her closing phrases to the world in a means that honors her legacy.”
Director Ben Proudfoot speaks after ‘The Closing Copy Of Ilon Specht’ premiere At Tribeca X on June 10, 2024 in New York Metropolis.
Slaven Vlasic/Getty Photos for Traverse32
The Closing Copy of Ilon Specht premiered a yr in the past at Tribeca X Pageant in New York, happening to win Greatest Documentary Quick on the HollyShorts Movie Pageant in Hollywood, the Scorching Springs Documentary Pageant in Arkansas, and the Chelsea Movie Pageant in New York, in addition to Greatest Quick Documentary and the Greatest Atlantic Filmmaker Award on the Lunenberg Movie Pageant in Nova Scotia. It’s presently streaming on TED, AMC+, and Prime Video.
“Ilon’s story is the essence of Reality Effectively Instructed, an sincere, brave expression that challenged the established order of promoting, reshaped how ladies see themselves, and altered how manufacturers converse to ladies,” commented Charlotte Franceries, CEO of McCann Paris. “We’re celebrating Ilon’s legacy, however we’re additionally serving to individuals perceive what ‘As a result of I’m Price It’ actually means to ladies everywhere in the world.”
Added Javier Campopiano, world chief artistic officer of McCann Worldgroup and McCann, “Essentially the most highly effective truths, those that transcend time and turn into common, are additionally probably the most private, those who come from the center. For Ilon Specht, ‘As a result of I’m Price It’ was way more than a slogan, it was her strategy to specific her anger in direction of the ethos of the time, and her ardour for concepts. That’s the reason why these 4 phrases she coined 50 years in the past have touched so many hearts and are nonetheless related at present.”
Cybill Shepherd in a L’Oréal Paris advert
L’Oreal Paris
A rare array of stars has appeared in L’Oréal Paris adverts, voicing these well-known phrases written by Specht, together with Oscar winners Jane Fonda, Helen Mirren, Kate Winslet, and Viola Davis, in addition to Eva Longoria, Andie MacDowell, Gwen Stefani, Beyoncé, and Cybill Shepherd, amongst others.
The Closing Copy of Ilon Specht marks the primary collaboration between the groups at TRAVERSE32, IPG Mediabrands’ world branded manufacturing firm and improvement studio, and Proudfoot’s Breakwater Studios. Along with directing, Proudfoot produced the movie alongside Breakwater Studios’ Kirstin Falk and Rachel Greenwald, and TRAVERSE32’s Brendan Gaul and Brett Henenberg. Daryl Lee, World CEO McCann Worldgroup, Charlotte Franceries, President, McCann Paris, & EVP World Enterprise Chief, L’Oréal Paris, and Julien Calot, Chief Inventive Officer, McCann Paris served as govt producers.
Proudfoot gained his first Academy Award for the 2021 brief documentary The Queen of Basketball. He gained his second Oscar for the 2023 nonfiction brief The Final Restore Store, co-directed with Kris Bowers. Proudfoot and Bowers have been Oscar-nominated for the 2020 brief doc A Concerto Is a Dialog.
