Cadbury chocolate, Xbox 'Halo' ads win big

USA TODAY, June, 2008 by Theresa Howard

CANNES, France -- The rivalry of Web vs. TV commercials ended in a tie for the top prize at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

A British TV ad with a drumming gorilla for Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate and a series of three-minute Internet videos for Microsoft's Halo 3 sci-fi video game both won Grand Prix as the world's best ads this year among 4,500 entries in the coveted "Film" ad category at the week-long competition.

It was the first time at the ad industry's top annual event that Web-only video was eligible to compete with commercials for TV and cinema use. It had been seen as something of a showdown between traditional and digital media.

The Grand Prix were awarded at Saturday night's closing ceremonies for the festival, at which agencies and marketers had entered nearly 30,000 ads from 85 countries for ...