The “Fearless Girl” statue took New York by storm when it first debuted opposite Wall Street’s charging bull on International Women’s Day. Now the bronze figure is doing the same in Cannes: The statue won first three Grand Prix awards this week at the Cannes Lions ad industry festival in France.
The girl is part of a campaign created by McCann New York for State Street Global Advisors, a financial firm based in Boston. The campaign took home the top awards in PR, Nontraditional Outdoor, Glass—a category that rewards works that positively impact gender inequity.
“It’s hard to go three-for-three,” Wendy Clark, CEO of DDB in North America and jury president for the Glass award, told AdWeek. “I would say simply that Fearless Girl gripped the world’s attention, and it will do for years to come. Its simplicity in the use of symbolism transcends geography, it transcends language, it transcends culture. For us, while it is a girl, it elegantly captures women’s journeys and our path the empowerment. And it also encapsulates our hopes and our ambitions for every little girl in the world.”‘
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The bronze girl has reportedly brought in a lot of business for State Street—including a 347% increase in size of the SHE fund, which tracks U.S. Companies that are leaders in gender diversity, reports AdWeek.
Since it’s debut, Fearless Girl has generated almost a million tweets and other free publicity for State Street—including mentions on other social media platforms, on TV and in the press, according to the Wa ll Street Journal. The paper reported the statue is valued between $27 million and $38 million.
Although Fearless Girl wowed the Cannes jury, it has received criticism from others, who have called it a publicity stunt and accused the firm of using feminism as a marketing tool, according to the New York Times. Arturo Di Modica, the Italian sculptor of the famous Charging Bull, has accused Fearless Girl of distorting the meaning of his artwork and demanded that it be moved.
