The U.S. opened the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2026 with 20 awards on day one, including two Grand Prix.That haul breaks down to four golds, three silvers and 11 bronzes across six categories: audio and radio, creative brand, health and wellness, outdoor, pharma and print and publishing.Two U.S. entrants claimed Grand Prix on day one. BBDO Puerto Rico won in audio and radio for Coquí Alarmed, created for Hyundai Puerto Rico. The campaign swapped the factory lock-and-unlock alarm sound on Hyundai rental cars for the actual call of Puerto Rico’s native coquí frog, turning a routine rental pickup into both a cultural moment and a conservation message.Publicis creative agency Fallon, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, took the Grand Prix in pharma’s integrated category for Relax Your Tight End, made for Novartis. The Super Bowl LX spot recruited NFL tight ends past and present, including Rob Gronkowski, and former Super Bowl-winning head coach and prostate cancer survivor Bruce Arians to push past men’s reluctance to get screened for prostate cancer. The campaign also picked up a silver in pharma’s film category.VML New York led U.S. entrants with four awards across two campaigns. In outdoor, the agency earned gold for The Last Coke in the Desert, a Coca-Cola campaign created with VML’s São Paulo and Mexico City offices. Marking the brand’s 100th anniversary in Mexico, the campaign traces the origins of a popular Mexican expression to the small shopkeepers who keep a Coke cold in the desert’s harshest, most remote stretches.In health and wellness, VML New York and VML Health New York won gold for Beat Cancer Off, made for nonprofit Fuck Cancer and recognized for its use of humor. The campaign built an entire platform — an original song, an animated film and a tracking app — around research linking ejaculation frequency to lower prostate cancer risk, aiming to get men talking about a topic they typically avoid. It also earned two bronzes, one in audio and radio and one in health and wellness for film craft.Elsewhere, Mastercard — credited alongside McCann New York — earned an inaugural Creative Brand Lion, a new category this year that looks beyond individual campaigns to recognize the internal systems, culture and capabilities that make breakthrough creative work possible on an ongoing basis.With many major categories still to come, the U.S. is off to a strong start with two Grand Prix already in hand.See last year's U.S. Cannes Lions winners here