Lion of St Mark celebrates trailblazing Credle
- Jun 22
- 1 min read
Alongside the many work-based categories, LIONS also awards individuals and companies that have acted as standard-bearers for exceptional creativity.
At the forefront of these is the Lion of St Mark lifetime achievement award, which will be presented to Susan Credle, recognising a career spanning more than 40 years and landmark work across agencies. The award reflects not just a body of iconic work, but a sustained influence on how agencies build ideas, teams and cultures that allow creativity to scale across decades and global networks. Revealing the news, Cook called her “a trailblazer and a creative force”.
Across four decades, Credle has held senior creative leadership roles at agencies including BBDO, Leo Burnett and FCB. Her work includes Allstate’s ‘Mayhem’ campaign, the Secret Deodorant ‘Mean Stinks’ anti-bullying initiative and McDonald’s Happy Meal literacy
programmes, reflecting a distinctive ability to balance cultural insight with commercial purpose.
Reflecting on the formative moment that set her trajectory, Credle said: “When I walked into the lobby of BBDO on Madison Avenue in the summer of 1985, I saw a poster celebrating Pepsi’s Cannes Lions Grand Prix-winning ‘Archaeology’, directed by Joe Pytka. The jury that honoured that work set the bar for what great advertising could be. It was provocative and beautifully crafted and showed real respect for the audience. More importantly, it launched something much bigger — the ‘Choice of a New Generation’ platform tha took the Cola Wars to another level. That Cannes Lions Award taught me something I’ve carried with me ever since: the best ideas don’t just succeed in the moment — they strive to be NVRFNSHD.”
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