Good morning, delegates!
Is it Friday already? Mon dieu.
It’s been a pleasure to be part of your routine during the festival. We’ll send a final wrap-up email with thoughts about media, marketing, and what it all means on Sunday.
And then that’s it. Or not! If you enjoyed this email, sign up to get the Quartz Daily Brief in your inbox every morning, a roundup of the most important and interesting news from the global economy.
Today will be hot and humid, but you already knew that. The high is expected to hit 28°C (82°F).
What’s going on today
David Droga’s lifetime achievement award. The founder of Droga5 will receive the Lion of St. Mark, which recognizes “significant and outstanding contributions to creativity” in the advertising industry. Well, he won’t actually receive the prize until Saturday, but he will be interviewed on stage today about his extensive body of work, which won him more than 80 Gold and Grand Prix Lions over the past 30 years. These are some of his favorite ads.
Happy Birthday Brexit! A year ago today, British voters narrowly opted to quit the European Union. WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell does not mince words about the wisdom of that decision, and there could be some spicy moments in a panel he is moderating at noon in the Palais that features Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots and diehard supporter of Donald Trump, who once dubbed himself “Mr. Brexit.” (Filmmaker Ron Howard will also be there, and his feelings about the future of European integration are less clear.) For more economic chat, IMF chief Christine Lagarde will talk about “how creativity is the fuel of change” in a separate session.
Get moving. The organizers at YouTube Beach are going out with a bang. Laganja Estranja, an activist and choreographer who made a star turn on RuPaul’s Drag Race, will be leading a “cardio workout and confidence workshop” along the water at 3pm.
Brutally honest session of the day: “How to Suck Less as a Client”
Friday night lights. This is likely your last chance to sip bubbly while watching the sun set over the Riviera from the deck of a megayacht. If you haven’t got an invite, your luck will depend on how convincingly you can drop DSP, SSP, DMP, and other ad-tech jargon into casual conversation. Alternatively, have a quiet dinner with your family at home, if, like many delegates, you’re jetting out sometime today.
What people are talking about
Sheryl Sandberg’s teachable moment. Yesterday, after Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg gave a candid talk about about building resilience following the sudden death of her husband (which had several people in the crowd in tears), an executive in the audience took a mic to ask Sandberg a question. “It’s a very intimidating crowd,” she said, as she introduced herself. Sandberg interrupted: “Can I take a moment? A teaching moment?” She told the woman she belonged there, as did everyone else, and acknowledged feeling the same way when she got to Cannes. One Sandberg-approved strategy for dispelling doubts is to write down three things you did well at the end of each day. They don’t have to be big—for example, one of us limited herself to a single coffee yesterday, and the other made a gif of water-jousting Frenchmen. (Read on.)
Jeffrey Katzenberg’s $600 million bet on mobile TV. The former chairman of Walt Disney Studios and co-founder of DreamWorks has amassed a formidable new fund that he plans to spend building the next big thing in video. He’s betting on “mobile-first, super-premium” content that people can watch during their “in-between times,” he said at the festival’s entertainment-focused side event. Other details are scarce, but he thinks it will be ad-supported and is adamant that he won’t skimp on production budgets, which currently run at around $100,000 per minute for a typical sitcom.
A business proposition from Pussy Riot. The Russian activists, artists, and punk rockers came to the epicenter of the advertising industrial complex (aka the Palais) to discuss the dangers of amplifying Vladimir Putin’s message. Pussy Rioter Nadezhda Tolokonnikova told the Hollywood Reporter that the US media’s obsession with Russian interference in the presidential election—however warranted—is feeding a propaganda machine that makes Putin look powerful at home. To fight against this, Tolokonnikova and her comrade Masha Alyokhina have a business proposition—they are in Cannes to raise money for their three-year-old news outlet, Mediazona.
Seen and heard
“The markets are changing faster than the clients, but the clients are changing faster than the agencies.”—A senior agency exec
Person 1: “You were very present in this meeting.”
Person 2: “You wanna know why? Because my phone isn’t syncing.”
“Just don’t be an asshole, if you’re male or female.”—Advice from one woman to another walking between appointments on the Croisette
Presenter: “Has anyone here tried chlorophyll?”
[No hands go up]
“OK, so none of you are peak millennial.”
Away from the Palais
Water jousting? Water jousting! The joutes provençales are a thing in Cannes. From 7pm tonight, at the old port (where all the festival yachts are), grab a seat in the bleachers to watch the action. It’s… something. This was the scene on Sunday:
Chart interlude
Don’t forget to rate your Airbnb. Many delegates have lived like Cannoises this week, because they took over the locals’ houses, apartments, and even sailboats. Over the past year, Airbnb demand during the Cannes Lions festival has outstripped all of the other conferences held in the city, according to data provider Airdna. It’s still plenty pricey to get a hotel room this week, but it would be worse if not for the thousands of other places offered for rent all around town. How do you say “side hustle” in French?
News from around the world
Republicans in the US Senate released their health-care bill, finally. The legislation would hit poor voters even harder than the House version that passed in early May, and is particularly harsh on women. Majority leader Mitch McConnell wants a vote next week, but it appears the bill has insufficient support to pass in its current form.
An advisor of South Korea’s ousted president was sentenced to jail. Choi Soon-sil will spend three years behind bars for soliciting university favors for her daughter, a court in Seoul ruled. More convictions will likely follow in the influence-peddling scandal that brought down president Park Geun-hye. Choi also faces charges of accepting bribes for Park, who is on trial.
Donald Trump said there are no secret White House tapes. The US president ended weeks of speculation about possible tapes of his conversations with former FBI director James Comey by tweeting that he “did not make, and do not have, any such recordings.”
Matters of debate
Robots are gaming human compassion. The push to humanize AI could dehumanize actual people.
Apple’s next big investment could reshape capitalism. Cashing in on Trump’s tax reform laws could fund the largest basic-income trial ever.
Millennials are the cheapest generation. Young people aren’t playing hard to get—they just don’t want your cars or houses.
Surprising discoveries
No one in Britain’s royal family wants to rule. Nevertheless, Prince Harry says his family will ”carry out our duties at the right time.”
Opioids killed as many Americans last year as the last three US wars combined. Only 10% of addicts get treatment (paywall).
The successor to the fidget-spinner is seriously dangerous. Chinese parents are demanding a ban on the viral “toothpick crossbow.”
Our best wishes for an inspiring day at the festival. Please send news, tips, dance routines, and punk rock pitch books to us at jason@qz.com and jenni@qz.com.