The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

It had been 12 years between visits and I must admit I’m quite conflicted with how I feel about the experience.

OK, so I was always in the skeptical camp.

I appreciate the need and value of celebrating ‘the best of creativity’, but I have long felt Cannes was less about that and more about celebrating the celebrity of advertising.

That said, while there were some differences, some had scarily remained the same.

The biggest difference was who were the big boys in town.

Last time I was there it was the big network agencies.

Massive venues.
Big Boats.
Grandiose parties.

And while all those things were still there, they were the domain of the tech giants … with agencies now occupying the odd beachside suite or – more typically – an Airbnb venue in one of the backstreets.

Don’t get me wrong, there was still some “look at me” statements from adland, but compared to what they were – and what the tech industry was doing – it was much more of a whimper than a roar.

This ‘tech industry doing a good impression of 80s adland’ was even more visible when it came to the evening festivities.

On the first night I was there, I found myself at the Carlton Hotel.

As usual, it was packed with people in jovial mood – either because they were catching up with old friends or were bullshitting network colleagues in a bid to look good to them.

Every now and then, you’d see a magnum of champagne being taken to a table. A fucking magnum?! Given my average burger and fries with a diet coke had cost me an eye watering €60 when I had it earlier in the day [not on expenses, so keep your rolling eyes to yourself], I literally daren’t imagine how much this cost.

But who would buy such an overt display of wealth and arrogance?

You guessed it – probably because you know ad agencies can’t afford that level of excess or expense anymore – it was people from our tech and media brothers and sisters … living and acting like it was still 1982.

There were plenty of other signs that revealed the tech companies were becoming the beasts they were meant to slay …

From the insanely big, patronising, condescending and delusional ego-driven ads that were all over Cannes [congrats IBM, that will be the only award your agency will win] to the gift bags handed out at every opportunity that were universally filled with Amazon rainforest worth of paper through to the overtly misogynistic atmosphere that permeated the air in the night.

This last thing upset me the most.

It’s bad enough that women had to deal with men propositioning, groping and touching them in the past, but the fact it is still going on – in this era of #MeToo – is breathtaking. Actually that’s not what is breathtaking, it’s the fact they felt comfortable doing it in public, at a global industry event, surrounded by peers and colleagues.

Nothing shows how prevalent sexist, predator behaviour continues to be in our industry than that.

One of my colleagues, Iain Preston, spotted a particularly unpleasant episode and thankfully stood in. You can read about it here.

As you can tell, I’m not a fan of Cannes.

Actually, let me be more specific. I’m not a fan of the behaviour of Cannes.

There are some amazing people there.

There are some amazing talks you get to listen to.

There is some amazing work to be inspired by.

I’m glad I went but happier I got to leave within a few days however I did come away with a very good reminder that the greatest gift you can give a client is the gift of honesty.

Honesty of the situation.
Honesty of the audience.
Honesty of the business or brand.
Honesty of what needs to be done.
Honesty of the creativity … in terms of encouraging the creatives to craft somewhere new not repackage and rehash something old.

Sadly this reminder came from witnessing too few agencies giving it &/or too few clients valuing it.

So to all the winners who wanted to make a difference in a way that was different, I don’t just say congratulations.