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Jane Austin: is it curtains for Cannes? Publicis Groupe and WPP are revolting

The robots are taking over at Publicis Groupe

Publicis Groupe is stopping all of its agencies around the world from participating in awards shows and trade shows for over a year, so no Cannes for them next year. The cash they save will go to an AI robot called Marcel who appears to have taken over the network and forced Arthur Sadoun, Mark Tutssel and co to make this video announcement at laser gun point. Don’t worry Publicis Groupe, help is coming.

Is Cannes dead?

Publicis Groupe is pulling out of Cannes 2018 and now WPP is threatening to do the same. Sir Martin Sorrell said at a Financial Times event in Cannes that the festival had became a money-making exercise and “has got to be rethought big time.” The “jury is out” on whether WPP will continue to participate and Sorrell said the festival might work better in a big city such as New York, London or Berlin. What, no CHI yacht party?

What’s keeps Keith Weed up at night?

No, it’s not what colour jacket to wear during Cannes week. The Unilever marketing boss he stays awake thinking about “joining the dots of the digital industry,” “embracing diversity and culture” and “re-imagining creativity.” Weed was talking in a session entitled ‘Three Things Keeping me up at Night’ with Lydia Palgreen, the editor of the Huffington Post.

Stan Smith: “I often tell people I’m a shoe”

Stan Smith is more than a shoe, he’s a former tennis champ. But it is the cult adidas trainer named after him and not his sports achievements that get him star treatment these days. He told Cannes: “I often tell people I’m a shoe.” He was on stage at Cannes alongside fashion designer Alexander Wang and Paul Gadio, adidas’ global creative director, who said adidas was still “a brand in beta” after 70 years in existence.

Because Helen’s f*cking worth it

If you don’t win an award at Cannes this year, Helen Mirren has this advice for you: “Just take that as a moment of ‘fuck them’; I’m going to do something. Fuel for the future'”. The acting legend, and L’Oreal cover girl, confessed she gets insecure even at this stage in her career but she believes self doubt is an important part of the creative process. Mirren, who was on stage with L’Oreal general manager Adrien Koskas and McCann Worldgroup’s Suzanne Powers, praised l’Oreal for embracing diversity. She also said that when she got the call to be the cosmetics giant’s brand ambassador at the age of 69 she thought “it was about bloody time.”

And the winners were:

Santander wins the Entertainment Grand Prix

Santander’s ‘Beyond Money’ campaign created by MRM/McCann Spain, a 17-minute epic, won the Entertainment Lions Grand Prix.

Thailand wins first ever Grand Prix, getting the top prize in Design

Thailand won its first Grand Prix award with a campaign from property development company AP Thailand that saw empty spaces of all shapes and sizes getting turned into soccer fields.

Adidas ‘Original is never finished’ wins Entertainment for Music Grand Prix

RG/A New York won the Grand Prix for Media for its “Innovating Saving” campaign for Jet.com.

Product Design Grand Prix goes to Columbian telecoms brand

The Product Design Grand Prix went to Colombian telecom brand TigoUne and Grey Colombia for their Payphone Bank conversion of unused payphones into banking stations. Meanwhile, Snapchat Spectacles won Gold and Seymour Powell’s smartphone design for Fairphone was the UK’s only Gold.

One Comment

  1. I agree with Mr. Sorrell. The awards were originally meant to reward agencies, production companies and clients for outstanding filmed creative work. That seems to have been drowned out by a torrent of other awards for pretty much everthing you can imagine, which rather dilutes the excitement and the attention that the big night used to generate. The event has become ever more corporate with the largest companies pushing the smaller creative companies aside. The costs (and the frankly silly restriction of access to many traditional watering holes) have become simpy ridiculous for all but the richest of companies. I think this will prove a mistake, with many of the smaller but highest quality outfits choosing not to either enter or attend in the near future. There ought to be a separate media industry Cannes, which would satisfy the networking needs of the biggest companies and a new, re-defined creative film awards, whether in Cannes or in drizzly London, Paris or Amsterdam. Mark Andrews.

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