Bonjour!
It’s the halfway point of the festival, and judging from the front-loaded nature of the program—or, let’s be honest, the party schedule—things could slow down significantly from here. If your brand isn’t activated yet, what are you waiting for?
The weather will be mostly sunny and “pleasant,” with a high of 29°C (84°F). That’s not so pleasant when you’re hoofing it along the Croisette between meetings, but you’re unlikely to get much sympathy from your colleagues back home.
What’s going on today
Rise to shine. Gloria Steinem, #MeToo founder Tarana Burke, and the BBC’s Zeinab Badawi headline the IPG Women’s Breakfast bright and early (8:30am) at the Martinez. Also on the roster: The New York Times’ Meredith Kopit Levin and Jessica Bennett, Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad, Facebook’s Carolyn Everson, and Amazon’s Claudine Cheever. The early bird gets the power breakfast.
Repackaging retail. Apple’s retail chief Angela Ahrendts has been talking up Apple’s retail revamp, making stores more experiential, and turning Genius Bars into “Genius Groves” with plants. She takes the Palais stage at noon. Brick-and-mortar enthusiasts should stick around until 2pm, when IKEA’s Claudia Willvonseder talks about how the Swedish flat-pack furniture empire used data to inform the promotion of its new IKEA Kids line.
Star-studded Palais sessions, emoji edition.
⚽ Abby Wambach, Shaquille O’Neal, a trio of Olympians (Adam Rippon, Mikaela Shiffrin, Ibtihaj Muhammad) and a quintet of martial arts champions
🎬 Conan O’Brien, David Schwimmer, Katie Couric, Alex Horne, Tyler Perry, and Ramy Youssef
🎶 Queen Latifah, Johnny Marr, and Labrinth
👠 Naomi Campbell
Existential session of the day: Finding Meaning in China’s Post-consumerist Culture
Hit the (Facebook) beach. There’s more than just free smoothies and spring rolls at Facebook Beach. At 3:20pm, Lena Waithe—creator of The Chi, and the first black woman to win an Emmy for comedy writing—talks Hollywood disruption. At 4pm, Es Devlin, creator of Instagram’s “Storyscape” installation (and sets for Kanye), takes the stage. When you’ve had enough sun, but not enough Facebook, head back to the Palais for a 5pm session about “the power of big tech platforms,” featuring the social media giant’s marketing honcho, Carolyn Everson.
Happy hour—or is it? The Holmes Report is holding a “Half Full or Half Empty cocktail hour” at 5:30 at the Martinez to discuss “why all your predictions were wrong.” Cheers! And let us know how the Turner cocktail party with Conan O’Brien, Shaquille O’Neal, and Chris Cuomo goes if you were invited. Then, take a disco nap and head to Spotify Beach to see Travis Scott and Chvrches from 10pm.
Speaking of Spotify… In another busy night for awards, the the first-ever award for Media Brand of the Year will go to the streaming music service. CEO Daniel Ek will accept it, in recognition of his company’s contribution “to reshape the future of media and transform how artists and brands communicate with their audiences.” This is the second major shout-out for Spotify this week: Beyoncé name-checked the company in the album she dropped with Jay Z over the weekend:
Patiently waiting for my demise
’cause my success can’t be quantified
If I gave two f***s about streaming numbers
would have put Lemonade up on Spotify
Oh.
2018 Fifa World Cup Russia™. Nike (Portugal) vs Adidas (Morocco) at 2pm, Puma (Uruguay) vs Nike (Saudi Arabia) at 5pm, and it’s Adidas-on-Adidas (Iran vs Spain) at 8pm.
Clean-living Cannes
Those 7:30am boxing-inspired classes at the Girls’ Lounge are still happening! At 8am, an Oracle exec who also happens to be a CrossFit instructor once again leads a “CannesFit” workout on a rooftop in town. If you want a couple more hours of sleep, there’s a 10:30am “connected yoga” class at the VaynerX Lounge, featuring special leggings with woven-in technology “to guide your flow with gentle vibrations.” Isn’t the point of yoga to disconnect?
What everyone is talking about
Is the sun setting on shady influencers? They’re often lauded for their “authenticity,” but some social media influencers aren’t as Instagram-famous as their follower counts suggest. On Monday, Unilever announced its brands—with some $8 billion in combined ad spend—will not work with influencers who buy followers, prompting a wider conversation about this burgeoning marketing channel. “The only version of them you’re getting is what they want you to see,” actress Ellen Pompeo said in a session yesterday. The “true” celebrities, she suggested, can’t hide their real lives behind flattering filters and highly-produced shots. “We get followed around.”
The future is decentralized. It’s 2018, so any sizable industry confab will inevitably pivot to blockchain. Six sessions in the first three days of Palais programming mention the distributed-ledger technology that underpins cryptocurrencies: Today’s offering rather modestly addresses “Why Blockchain Has the Potential to Change Advertising Forever.” Several side events have also featured plenty of chain chat, and the newly formed Digital Future Council made it the theme of its invite-only villa up the hill. On Tuesday, participants passed from the pool to the terrace to the rococo drawing rooms for a series of workshops and presentations about how blockchain could transform the media industry. “It scares the s*** out of me, frankly,” admitted one attendee. Others weren’t so fussed…
We’ll be back. A “lighthearted and jovial” presentation by Publicis boss Arthur Sadoun diffused some of the tension that the ad giant created when it pulled out (sort of) from Cannes this year. He answered questions about the AI platform that the agency built with the funds it saved by not entering awards, and committed to a return in 2019. “Our work needs to be judged,” he said.
Seen and heard
“I think mentorship can be overrated… You can YouTube anything… with no relationships.”—Sophia Amoruso of Girlboss
A yacht with an unexpected (and problematic) brand is moored at the very end of the pier: the 225-foot Lady S, flying the flag of the Washington Redskins NFL team. The boat belongs to team owner Daniel Snyder, but it can be yours for just under $70 million.
“You can get a reservation anywhere out there”—PR vet revealing a surefire sign of cutbacks in Cannes delegations, motioning to the strip of cafes outside the Palais
A creative who went “rogue,” from a Publicis-owned agency, traveled to Cannes on his own dime, and made the most of The Killers’ show at Spotify last night: “I kind of love it because I’m not supposed to be here,” he said, between belting out verses. “They know about it, but they’re not thrilled.”
“The ethos of value will fundamentally pivot.” If you say so.
By the numbers
Judge and jury. Five years ago, only one in five Cannes Lions jury members was a woman, and just over one in 10 was a jury president. Things have improved since, but as in so many other aspects of the industry, there is still a ways to go to reach full gender equality.
News from around the world
Global markets dipped as trade tensions rose. After a week of escalating rhetoric, the US and China are edging closer to a trade war. Investors were spooked, sending major stock indexes down sharply yesterday, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped into negative territory for the year. Asian markets opened mixed today.
Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron announced plans for a new euro-zone budget. The leaders of Germany and France agreed to a joint budget for nations sharing the euro, one that would be separate from the larger European Union budget. Designed to boost investment and encourage economic convergence, the budget will be put in place by 2021.
South Korea gave companies a six-month grace period for a shorter work week. Under new rules passed in February, businesses with 300 or more employees must cut the maximum working week from 68 hours to 52 hours starting July 1. President Moon Jae-in promised while campaigning to cut the country’s “inhumanely long” working hours.
Matters of debate
Solitude is the most important skill. Modern humans are hyperconnected, overstimulated, and not nearly introspective enough.
Pandas should be allowed to go extinct. The cuddly creatures steal conservation resources from more deserving animals.
Trump is right about Europe. Tariffs will rebalance a global system that has long benefited the region at the expense of the US (paywall).
Surprising discoveries
Russia’s soccer team could be legally protected from mockery. Lawmaker Vitaly Milonov proposed making it illegal to bad-mouth the country’s national team.
A Paraguayan man showed up at his own wake. His family was grieving over a misidentified corpse.
AIs can debate now. An IBM robot designed to make coherent arguments battled a human opponent to a draw.
Our best wishes for an inspiring day at the festival. Please send any news, tips, vibrating workout wear, and fake Instagram followers to us, Jenni and Jason. This email was brought to you by the liberal application of SPF 50 and two scoops of pistachio macaron gelato.
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