The first day of the 72nd Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is done and dusted and the first rounds of Lions winners have been awarded overnight, with Budweiser, KitKat, Penny, Vaseline, Viatris, and the New Zealand Herpes Foundation among the brands to snag Grand Prix wins.

The Cannes Lions Classic and Health categories are the first to have been awarded, with NZ Herpes Foundation's The Best Place in the World to Have Herpes campaign from Finch Sydney and Motion Sickness Auckland the first Australian work to take home a Grand Prix this year. The work, which featured a first-of-its-kind ‘Herpes Destigmatisation Course’, won the prestigious Lions Health Grand Prix for Good, with the category's jury led by United Nations Foundation chief communications and marketing officer David Ohana as Jury President.

"This year’s Lions Health Grand Prix for Good unabashedly uses humour to tackle a challenging subject and stigmatisation. Forget doom and gloom, there’s enough of that already to go around. Our 2025 awardee took a taboo topic and turned it on its head - showing that with a great strategy, a big, bold crazy idea…can only imagine the pitch…and humour for days, that anything is possible. Brilliant," said Ohana.

The other Health categories awarded were Health & Wellness and Pharma, with the Grand Prix for the latter going to the Make Love Last campaign from Viatris and Ogilvy Shanghai. The category jury was presided over by EVP executive experience director at IPG's Area 23, Franklin Williams, with only one Gold lion awarded, going to Biogen and 21Grams for the Friedreich's Back campaign.

Meanwhile, Unilever landed the Grand Prix in Health & Wellness on the Vaseline Verfied campaign created with Ogilvy Singapore, while the New Zealand Herpes Foundation picked up a second accolade for its Grand Prix-winning campaign, with a Gold Lion in the Health & Wellness category. Havas global chief creative Eric Weisberg was the jury president, with other Gold winner in the category included Idomed, Cemento Sol, AXA, Zip Code Exam, and Sickkids Foundation.

The University of Dyslexic Thinking created for Dyslexicu by DDB Melbourne, in collaboration with adam&eveDDB New York and Collider Sydney, picked up a Bronze Lion.

The Classic categories include Audio & Radio, Outdoor, Publishing, and Film, though the latter is awarded at the end of the festival.

Joe Public chief creative Xolisa Dyeshana was the Jury President for the Audio & Radio category, with Budweiser and Africa Creative DDB Sao Paulo taking out the Grand Prix for their 'Use of Music' in the One Second Ads campaign. The work also nabbing a Gold for 'Audio-led creativity'. Other gold winners in the category included Oreo and VML New York for Name This Oreo, and Billboard Arabia and SRMG Labs' The Second Release.

Volkswagen Australia and DDB Sydney's Roobadge campaign was recognised among the Bronze winners for 'Audio-led creativity'.

Four Grand Prix were handed out in the Outdoor category, with Ogilvy LATAM chief creative Keka Morelle as Jury President. KitKat picked up the accolade for three of its works with VML Prague, and the other going to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony. Stella Artois, Heinz, Axe/Lynx, Coca-Cola, ITV, Rimas Music, Tecate, Penny and Indian Railways took out gold wins with their respective agency partners. Of the Australian work listed to the Outdoor shortlist, Coca-Cola and Ogilvy Sydney's Meet Me At the Coke Sign was the only winner, taking home a Silver Lion.

In the Publishing category, presided over by DM9 president and chief creative Icaro Doria, German discount retailer Penny took the Grand Prix win with its agency partner Serviceplan Munich, and Gold Lions went to Stella Artois, Dove, Time of India and Oka Biotech. There was no Australian work shortlisted in the category.