The Work That Made Me: Gabriel Lepesteur

Gabriel Lepesteur is a creative director at 180 Amsterdam. Ranked #3 Most Awarded Copywriter Worldwide in 2024 and #10 Best Copywriter at Cannes 2023, he has led and created integrated and innovative campaigns for global brands such as Oreo, Xbox, Olympic Games, Samsung, Heinz, ESPN, Audi and Bang & Olufsen.

Before moving to the Netherlands, Gabriel worked in Brazil and Germany, where he created one of the most successful campaigns in Mondelez's history – Oreo Cheat Cookies. This campaign received global acclaim, ranking #2 in The Drum Global Rankings 2024 and #9 in the WARC Creative 100 Rankings 2024 – helping Oreo to become Brand of the Year at the New York Festivals 2023 and Saatchi & Saatchi to be #7 Best Agency in Europe at Cannes 2023.

Prior to that, he made a significant contribution to Leo Burnett Brazil, where he played a key role in winning the Samsung pitch for the digital/social account and working across Brazil and Latin America. His work helped Leo Burnett to be named Agency of the Year at the Caboré Award in 2018.

Additionally, he had the exciting opportunity to see one of his campaigns become part of an exhibition at the Brazilian Football Museum and to lead the official mascots campaign for the Olympic Games held in his hometown, Rio de Janeiro.

Gabriel's work has been recognised at all the major creative and effectiveness award festivals, including 4x Cannes Gold Lions, 2x Eurobest Grand Prix and 1x New York Festivals Grand Prix, as well as over 150 trophies from D&AD, Clio, One Show, LIA, ADC Annual, Webby Awards, ADC Europe, Epica, Effie, ADC Germany, Brazilian Creative Club and more.

Throughout his 18+ years of experience, Gabriel has held roles at Saatchi & Saatchi, Serviceplan, We Are Social, Leo Burnett, Africa DDB and Ogilvy. He’s a member of ADC Germany and has served as a jury member at the New York Festivals, ADC Germany, and the Lisbon Awards. He also participated in the Google RARE Leadership Academy in 2022.

LBB> The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…

Gabriel> One of my favourite ads is ‘Ants’, created by F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi for Philco. The idea was simple, fun, and incredibly well-executed at the time. As for the music video, I would repeatedly watch 'Learn to Fly' by Foo Fighters because of the storytelling.

LBB> The ad/music video/game/web platform that made me want to get into the industry…

Gabriel> When I started studying communication at my university in Brazil, one of my professors frequently showed us the best TV commercials made in the country. The work of great copywriters such as Washington Olivetto, Nizan Guanaes, and Fabio Fernandes highly influenced me. Luckily, I had the chance to work with the first two and learned a lot from them.

LBB> The creative work that I keep revisiting…

Gabriel> In general, I revisit more the people than the work itself. I love following film directors, cinematographers, actors, painters and people I had the chance to work with or that influenced me somehow.

For instance, recently I found myself watching Senna, the TV series on Netflix and discovered that one of the cinematographers, Azul Serra, is someone I worked with on a project developed for the Olympic Games in Brazil.

LBB> My first professional project…

Gabriel> My first global professional project was 'Friends of Rio' for the Olympic Games. Back then, I worked at Ogilvy and had the huge opportunity to create the official launch for the Olympic Games Mascots in my hometown, Rio de Janeiro.

At the time, Brazil was under investigation by the FBI due to corruption related to the FIFA World Cup hosted in the country two years prior. The Olympic Committee had many concerns about launching the Olympic mascots in such unfriendly times, so our idea was to bring former Olympic mascots to introduce the new ones, positively twisting the launch into a kind of good friends gathering.

We even managed to bring Misha, the famous mascot of the Games in Moscow (who hadn’t been part of any Olympic Games since then), to be the big star of the campaign.

LBB> The creative project that changed my career…

Gabriel> All of them were very special and helped me to improve and develop as a creative, but the 'Camouflage Jersey' for Bahia Sports Club, when I was at Leo Burnett, had a special impact.

To shine a spotlight on the problem of violence around football stadiums in Brazil, we created a jersey that changes its colours from a neutral design to Bahia’s official team colours when the fan is safe inside the stadium.

Using cutting-edge technology, we managed to make the media pay attention to the topic. Right after launching the jersey, I got my 15 minutes of fame (actually five), being on air in the biggest sports television show in Brazil. We got invites from ESPN, Fox Sports, Fast Company, and many others to talk about the campaign and technology. I think this proves that an idea doesn’t need to follow a format and can be anything.

LBB> The work that I’m proudest of…

Gabriel> It’s the 'Oreo Cheat Cookies' that I created at Saatchi & Saatchi. A campaign for the whole European market that even heated up the North American market. I think this campaign is a big mix of everything I believe in and have been trying to do in advertising since I started.

When my creative partner and I got the briefing, we immediately wanted to challenge it. We knew that creating only a TVC or a traditional campaign wouldn’t engage with the gaming community. I’ve been playing games ever since I was a kid and the cheat code for Sonic the Hedgehog (at the title screen, Up, Down, Left, Right until you hear the sound of a ring being collected, then A and Start) has always stayed with me.

I wanted to give consumers the same experience of unlocking a ‘reward’, something that would be remarkable for them. Turning Oreo cookies into cheat cookies was a long process with many people involved, but it definitely paid off. 

Apart from all the amazing results and awards, it ended up becoming a creative strategy for the brand and collaborations to come.

LBB> The recent project I was involved in that excited me the most…

Gabriel> During my time at We Are Social, I had the chance to work on a project for Audi. The brand developed an exclusive racing car for Ken Block. Unfortunately, he passed away a few months later in a tragic snowmobile accident. As a tribute to Ken Block, Audi decided to invite Lia Block, his daughter, to drive the S1 Hoonitron. It was a touching experience to see Lia driving her father’s car.

Currently, I’m working on some exciting projects at 180 which hopefully will be live very soon.