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Group Creative Director


Group Creative Director
São Paulo · Brasil | Dubai · UAE
Jonathan Cruz 2 Grand Prix · 30 Cannes Lions · 200+ Awards
Publicis | R/GA | Havas | FCB | McCann





     
Adidas®
Liquid Billboard


88% of women in the Middle East 
don’t feel comfortable swimming in public.

What if a Billboard could make women feel comfortable swimming again? Adidas built the world’s first swimmable billboard.

  
 
  

Spoor®
The Birdwatcher


There’s wildlife data collected around wind farms. 
Most of it sits in spreadsheets and goes nowhere.

The Birdwatcher transforms that data into a public platform
that reveals how birds and wind energy coexist.


  View Project  


Puck®
Recipe for Change


War devastated Lebanon. Thousands of mothers
lost homes and livelihoods. Except their recipes.

Recipe for Change brought those family recipes
to restaurant menus, turning culinary heritage
into income.

  View Project  

CFPA®
Breakchains
W/ Blockchain


Every year in Egypt, thousands of mothers are sent 
to prison for debts as small as a few hundred dollars.

Breakchains turned their stories into NFTs,
each priced at the exact amount needed
to pay their debt and free them.

  View Project  





Heinz®
Ketchup Insurance


Ketchup accidents happen more often than people admit. 
Nearly half of Heinz fans have experienced one.

So Heinz created the world’s first insurance policy protecting people from ketchup mishaps.

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McDonald's®
After Dinner Dinner






Fine dining can leave you with an empty wallet 
and an empty stomach.

After Dinner Dinner reframed McDonald's as the place you go after the tasting menu, when the smoke clears, the microgreens are gone, and you're still hungry.

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Mastercard®
Room for Everyone


After two years of war, Polish support for Ukrainian 
refugees fell to 52%, driven by fears of job competition.

Mastercard used its data to pair new Ukrainian businesses with complementary Polish ones, turning rivals into neighbors.


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TCS®
Sponsored Balls



Every inch of a football kit is branded. Except one.

So during Testicular Cancer Awareness Month,
CD Leganés put the Testicular Cancer Society's logo right where it mattered, on the testicular region of their shorts. The ultimate white space in sponsorship became the most talked-about ad in football.

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McDonald's®
Not For First Dates


Real love isn't built on grand first impressions. It's built in everyday moments, stealing fries, ice cream on noses, easy silences.

McDonald's reframed itself as the place that's not for the first date, but for every other one.

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Mastercard®
Life Donor Card



86% of Germans always carry their bank card. 
Only 26% carry their organ donor card.

Now donor consent lives on the back of the one they never leave home without, signed, legally valid, ready in an emergency.

  View Project  





Mastercard®
Public Money ATM


In Poland, billions in public funds get spent every 
year with almost no citizen input.

We turned 22,000 ATMs into voting booths, letting people
decide where local tax money goes, on the same machine
they use to manage their own.

  View Project  

TCS®
Highlight Your Balls


1 in 250 men get testicular cancer, yet most have watched 
a thousand defenders protect theirs before a free kick.

We hijacked that moment, slipping a self-check tutorial into YouTube highlights, right as the wall went up.


  View Project  




Waterstones®
Read Better


People aren't reading less, 
they're just reading differently.

Read Better turned everyday digital scrolling into a reading metric, a plugin that counts the words you consume online,
then recommends a book that matches your daily word count.

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Bradesco®
Firefly


Brazil was facing economic crisis and a national 
mood of hopelessness.

Bradesco answered with Firefly, the story of a small countryside firefly who moves to the big city, a quiet metaphor for finding your light in a place where it's hard to be seen.

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Heinz®
Post Post - Credit


Skip culture has trained us to wait for nothing. 
But Heinz pours slowly on purpose.

The world's first ad interrupted by a movie played half before
the film, half after the final credit, rewarding the few patient enough to wait, just like the ketchup itself.

  View Project  

Harley-Davidson®
The Midlife Check


What does a man check more often, his bike or his body? 
For most Harley riders, it isn't close

We added one line to the warranty, a free prostate screening, bundled in with the oil change. The toughest men on the road, finally checking both.

  View Project  




Adidas®
Impossible is Nothing


In the Middle East, 77% of men play football. 
Only 23% of women do. 

So Adidas elevated Nouf Al Anzi, a young Emirati talent,
into a film that caught the eye of Zinedine Zidane himself,
turning her into the next face of the game, on a global stage.

  View Project  

More Work
& Art Direction


























I come from Lameirão, Mulungu. You've probably never heard of it, and that's the point.


It's a small village in the hills of Ceará, Brazil, the kind of place where the roads are quiet, stories travel faster than news, and the nearest city feels like another life. Not much arrives there, so you learn to make your own. That's where I understood creativity before I had the word for it.

Today, I'm a group creative director based in Dubai, building ideas with the same belief I learned early: nothing gets attention by default. The work has to carry its own weight, earn its place in culture, and survive beyond the deck.

Strip away the titles, the cities, and the awards, and it still comes back to the same belief: creativity is what you reach for when the obvious answer isn't enough.





Contact

 +971 54 367 5941
 jonathanddcruz@gmail.com
 @jddcruz
 LinkedIn





Jury

Loeries
Media Innovation


New York Festivals
Shortlist Jury


The ANDY Awards
Mena Jury


Adforum
Outdoor







Press

Campaign Brief Asia
The M25 Global Creative Series


Little Black Book
Uprising Interview






Agencies



Clients


Awards & Recognitions 

200+ Awards by Festival

30  Cannes Lions 30 Cannes Lions
30 Lions · 47 shortlists · 77 total
(2 Grand Prix, 3 Gold, 12 Silver, 13 Bronze)
Liquid Billboard — Adidas · Grand Prix Outdoor/Cultural Insight; Gold Outdoor/Special Build; 
3× Silver; Bronze; 7 Shortlists
Breakchains w/ Blockchain — CFPA · 3× Silver (Digital Craft, Creative Commerce, Media); 5 Shortlists Room for Everyone — Mastercard · Grand Prix Creative Data; Gold Creative Data; 
Silver Creative B2B; 4 Shortlists
Ketchup Insurance — Heinz · Bronze Audio & Radio; 7 Shortlists Recipe for Change — Puck / Arla Foods · Gold SDGs; Silver Brand Experience; Bronze B2B; 3 Shortlists Life Donor Card — Mastercard · Silver Brand Experience; Bronze Creative Data;
 Bronze Direct; Titanium Shortlist
Highlight Your Balls — Testicular Cancer Society · Silver Brand Experience; 6 Shortlists After Dinner Dinner — McDonald's · 3× Bronze (Direct, Commerce, Media); 2 Shortlists Sponsored Balls — Testicular Cancer Society · Bronze PR/Events & Stunts; 2 Shortlists The Firefly — Bradesco Bank · Bronze Social & Influencer; 1 Shortlist Public Money ATM — Mastercard · 2× Silver (Direct, Brand Experience); 3 Shortlists Read Better — Waterstones · 2× Bronze (Digital Craft, Film); 3 Shortlists Not For First Dates — McDonald's UAE · Bronze Outdoor/Social Behaviour The Mid-Life Check — Harley-Davidson · Shortlist Audio & Radio/Corporate Purpose The Last Steel of Azovstal — United24 · Shortlist Promotional Item Design Medicines of Taboo — UN Women · Young Lions Health Global Shortlist
26  Dubai Lynx 26 Dubai Lynx
26 metals · 3 shortlists · 29 total
(2 Grand Prix, 6 Gold, 6 Silver, 12 Bronze)
Liquid Billboard — Adidas · Grand Prix Design; 4× Gold; 3× Silver; 8× Bronze Breakchains w/ Blockchain — CFPA · 2× Gold; Silver; Bronze; 1 Shortlist Highlight Your Balls — Testicular Cancer Society · Grand Prix for Good; Gold Social & Influencer; 2× Silver; 2 Shortlists After Dinner Dinner — McDonald's · Gold Direct; Bronze Brand Experience Ketchup Insurance — Heinz · Silver Direct; Bronze Media/Audio Read the Label — Barakat · Bronze In-Store Experience
22  Loeries 22 Loeries
22 metals · 4 shortlists/certificates · 26 total
(1 Grand Prix, 8 Gold, 7 Silver, 6 Bronze)
Liquid Billboard — Adidas · Grand Prix; 2× Gold; 2× Silver; Bronze Breakchains w/ Blockchain — CFPA · 3× Silver; Bronze; Certificate Recipe for Change — Puck / Arla Foods · 3× Gold; Bronze Ketchup Insurance — Heinz · Silver; 2× Bronze; Craft Certificate Sponsored Balls — Testicular Cancer Society · 2× Gold; Silver After Dinner Dinner — McDonald's · 3× Bronze; 2 Shortlists
22  London International Awards 22 London International Awards
22 metals
(1 Grand LIA, 7 Gold, 9 Silver, 5 Bronze)
Room for Everyone — Mastercard · 4× Gold; 4× Silver; Bronze Life Donor Card — Mastercard · 2× Gold; 4× Silver; 2× Bronze Recipe for Change — Puck / Arla Foods · Grand LIA; Gold; Bronze Liquid Billboard — Adidas · Silver; Bronze Breakchains w/ Blockchain — CFPA · Silver Metaverse; Bronze NFT
13  The One Show 13 The One Show
13 Pencils · 2 Merits · 7 shortlists · 22 total
(3 Gold, 5 Silver, 5 Bronze)
Room for Everyone — Mastercard · 2× Gold Pencils; 2× Silver; 4× Bronze; 2 Merits Breakchains w/ Blockchain — CFPA · Gold Pencil; Silver Pencil Liquid Billboard — Adidas · 3× Silver Pencils; 1 Shortlist Ketchup Insurance — Heinz · Bronze Pencil; 4 Shortlists Life Donor Card — Mastercard · Bronze Pencil / Direct Marketing for Good
13  Clio Awards 13 Clio Awards
13 metals · 1 shortlist · 14 total
(2 Gold, 2 Silver, 9 Bronze)
Liquid Billboard — Adidas · 5× Bronze; 1 Shortlist Breakchains w/ Blockchain — CFPA · Gold Creative Commerce; 3× Bronze Ketchup Insurance — Heinz · Silver Audio Craft; Bronze Social Life Donor Card — Mastercard · Silver Creative Data; Bronze Direct Room for Everyone — Mastercard · Gold Direct / Use of Data
12  Effie Awards / MENA Effie 12 Effie Awards / MENA Effie
12 metals
(1 Grand Prix, 6 Gold, 3 Silver, 2 Bronze)
10  D&AD 10 D&AD
10 Pencils · 2 shortlists · 12 total
(2 Graphite, 8 Wood)
Liquid Billboard — Adidas · Graphite Pencil; 2× Wood Pencil; 2 Shortlists Room for Everyone — Mastercard · Graphite Pencil; Wood Pencil Breakchains w/ Blockchain — CFPA · 2× Wood Pencil Life Donor Card — Mastercard · 2× Wood Pencil Recipe for Change — Puck / Arla Foods · Wood Pencil
11  Ad Stars 11 Ad Stars
11 metals · 3 crystals · 14 total
(1 Grand Prix, 4 Gold, 3 Silver, 3 Bronze)
Liquid Billboard — Adidas · Grand Prix PR; 4× Gold; Silver; Bronze Breakchains w/ Blockchain — CFPA · 2× Silver; 2× Bronze; 3× Crystal
11  Cresta 11 Cresta
11 metals
(1 Grand Prix, 6 Gold, 2 Silver, 2 Bronze)
Breakchains w/ Blockchain — CFPA · 4× Gold; 2× Silver; 2× Bronze Liquid Billboard — Adidas · Grand Prix Design; 2× Gold
7  Lisbon Ad Festival 7 Lisbon Ad Festival
7 metals
(3 Grand Prix, 3 Gold, 1 Silver)
Liquid Billboard — Adidas · 3× Grand Prix; 3× Gold; Silver
6  Clio Sports 6 Clio Sports
6 metals
(1 Gold, 4 Silver, 1 Bronze)
Liquid Billboard — Adidas · Gold; 4× Silver; Bronze
4  ANDY Awards 4 ANDY Awards
4 metals · 4 Gold
4  White Square 4 White Square
4 metals · 1 shortlist · 5 total
(3 Gold, 1 Bronze)
Breakchains w/ Blockchain — CFPA · 3× Gold; Bronze; 1 Shortlist
2  Epica Awards 2 Epica Awards
2 metals · 2 Gold
2  Gerety Awards 2 Gerety Awards
2 metals · 2 Silver
2  Brazilian Festivals 2 Brazilian Festivals
2 metals · 2 shortlists · 4 total
(Clube de Criação · Wave Festival)
The Firefly — Bradesco Bank · Bronze Digital (CCSP); Bronze Film Craft (Wave); 2 Shortlists
Rankings & Highlights

Top 20 Digital Campaigns of 2024
Campaign Magazine


Top #1 Art Director in the Middle East

The One Show, 2022

Top #2 Most Awarded Campaign — Liquid Billboard
WARC, 2023

Top #10 ACD Middle East & Africa
The One Show, 2023

Top #11 Most-Awarded Art Director
The Drum Global Rankings, 2023

Gold Young Lions UAE - 2023

Within the 100 Most-Awarded Art Directors
The Drum Global Rankings, 2021