The Organisers of the 55th Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival have announced that this year’s prestigious Advertiser of the Year award will be awarded to Procter & Gamble.

This important award is presented to advertisers who have distinguished themselves for inspiring innovative marketing of their products and who embrace and encourage the creative work produced by their agencies.

“Five years ago, Procter & Gamble made a public commitment to embrace creativity to drive their marketing. This public commitment was a message to their agencies and to the people who work in their agencies and resulted in many thousands of column inches being written about this initiative in the world press. The vision materialized in 2007 when P&G won 14 Lions at Cannes, including the coveted Press Lions Grand Prix. There can be no greater commitment to the cause of Creativity than that displayed by P&G and we are delighted to be awarding them this prestigious honour," said Terry Savage, Festival Chairman.

Founded in 1837, headquartered in Cincinnati and currently operating in over 80 countries with more than 138,000 employees, Procter & Gamble spend around US$8 billion a year on advertising, the highest ad spend in the world. A leading global marketer, P&G manufacture a wide range of household, beauty and personal care products which include such worldwide renown brands as Always, Ariel, Braun, Duracell, Gillette, Pampers, Pantene, Pringles, Olay, Oral-B.

The prestigious Advertiser of the Year trophy will be presented to P&G’s Chairman and CEO, A.G. Lafley, and Jim Stengel, the company’s Global Marketing Officer, in Cannes during the Film, Titanium and Integrated Lions Awards Ceremony on Saturday 21 June 2008.