Bonjour!
It’s the last day of Cannes—the festival, not the city. Thanks for letting us be a part of your inbox this week.
For our takeaways of the week, join a video conference call with Jenni and Jason, who have spent the past five days up, down, and all around the Croisette. Dial in via this link at 2:30pm in Cannes (1:30pm London, 8:30am New York, 8:30pm Hong Kong). And if you’re a Quartz member in New York, we’re hosting a breakfast gathering at the same time to talk about the festival, the future of advertising, and much else besides.
For those of you (still) in Cannes, it will be lovely sendoff, with a high of 26°C (79°F) and generous helpings of that famous French Riviera sun.
Today at the Palais
The future is orange. “For some years now, we have heard the term ‘Orange Economy’…” reads the intro to this 10am session. Have we? Anyway, the first head of state to appear at the festival this year, Colombian president Iván Duque, will explain how to squeeze the most value out of the creative economy: orange is apparently a color associated with “culture, creativity, and identity,” according to a book Duque co-wrote a few years ago.
TikTok talks. The hottest thing in social media, Chinese-owned music video app TikTok, has a low-key presence at Cannes this year. At 11:45am, its US marketing director and two prominent users of the service will talk about WTF is going on with the baffling, amusing, and addictive app. The company set up a small booth in the CLX wing of the Palais, but after visiting twice, your correspondent is none the wiser about this latest internet phenomenon. (But also, he’s old.)
The playa meets la plage. Martin Sorrell appears on the mainstage at noon with Marian Goodell, CEO of Burning Man, the annual reenactment of Mad Max-meets-Bonnaroo in the Nevadan desert. (“An icon for creative disruption,” as the festival organizers describe it.) If you’re curious how Sir Martin’s new marketing venture, S4 Capital, is going, don’t bother with this; last year, at the same time on the same stage, he dodged discussion of his ouster from WPP by adopting the role of the interviewer, not the interviewee. It was weird.
Live from Cannes, it’s Friday afternoon! Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels was named the inaugural Entertainment Person of the Year by the Lions, and today he’s on the main stage with NBCUniversal ad exec Linda Yaccarino at 1pm. He doesn’t give many interviews, but he’s among friends here. Yesterday, he told the crowd when accepting the award that ads do more than just keep the lights on at SNL: “We use commercials to change sets, costumes and wigs.”
And the winner is… Many of the tech execs and CMOs have already gone home, but this is the biggest night of the year for creatives, with Lions awarded for the agency, brand, network, marketer, and holding of the year, among others. The Lion of St. Mark, a lifetime achievement award for “significant and outstanding contributions to creativity,” goes to the duo of Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein.
Away from the Palais
Picture this. Snap’s augmented reality team collaborated with LA artist Alex Israel on five paintings that are “unleashed” in the viewer’s smartphone. They can be overlaid onto self-portraits hanging in the yellow-bannered museum on the Croisette. Today is your last day to unleash them.
Buckets of insight. In its final beachfront breakfast bonanza for CMOs, The Economist convenes marketing execs from KFC, Deloitte, and Unilever. Aline Santos of Unilever will likely talk about recent research into stereotyping that the company undertook: it DNA-tested creative professionals and worked with them to discover whether a better understanding of ancestral history changed the way they viewed others.
Welcome home. Inkwell Beach, the “new beach on the block” opposite the Carlton, has its priorities straight: Focused talks on diversity, inclusion, and equality, hosted by the Cannes Can Diversity Collective. There’s also fresh, delicious food served throughout the day in a homey environment conducive to eating and enjoying it, starting at 12:00pm. It’s accompanied by a cooking demo with soul food chefs Sasha “Double X” Foxx, James “Big Country” Rose, and Raymond “Release the Doves” Lewis. Bon appétit!
Clean-living Cannes
Twist and shout. If you’re up at 7:30am with nothing to do, get down to the Wall Street Journal’s cabana for juices and “team exercise.” You then have time to join “Swedish Fit” at CBeach at 9am. We don’t know what it is, but we’ll see you there. (We won’t.)
If that all sounds a bit tame, join Adobe’s Curt Hecht Epic Ride. Starting at 7am, it’s a 100-mile cycle ride to Monaco, up a mountain or two, and doing more than 10,000 in vertical elevation along the way. See you there! (See above.)
Party planner
The last hurrah. The official closing party for the festival starts at 9pm on the Carlton beach. Since it’s the grand finale of the creative year, the party has a New Year’s Eve theme. The self-styled “unofficial closing party” is put on by record label Ninja Tune, along rue Gerard Monod, and goes ‘til 5am. But maybe a quiet dinner and calling it an early night is the best plan?
What everyone is talking about
“The work.” Perhaps you’ve heard that nobody cares anymore about the work—as in, the actual ads that Cannes Lions is meant to celebrate. We’ve heard it uttered at nearly every cocktail hour, at least the ones that let the creatives attend. So what’s driving the gripes this year? We finally got a decent explanation from one chief creative officer, who said after a few drinks that, while feeling underappreciated is part of the craft, it’s more acute now because of the newfound competition that creative agencies are facing from consulting firms. “They don’t know creative,” he said of the consultancies. “There’s just zero respect for”—there it was again—“the work.”
Cannes-abis. Adam Miron, cofounder and brand chief of Canadian cannabis producer Hexo, and graffiti muralist Tristan Eaton both see themselves as fighting against societal stigma with work that is, in many places, still considered criminal. Hexo commissioned Eaton to create immersive, Instagram-worthy spaces for its 2018 activations—but don’t expect to see Eaton-designed labels on the beverages and edibles forthcoming from Hexo’s new joint venture with Molson Coors. “I got a name for you,” Eaton said. “Smoke-a Cola.” For more on the burgeoning field of cannabis branding, check this out.
Can we talk about that Jeff Goldblum panel? It was like three simultaneous but unrelated panels for the price of one. Cannes Lions’ Lulu Benson, who moderated, was determined to share some new survey data about Gen-Z attitudes towards entertainment; Havas’ Stéphane Xiberras kept dimming the lights to show commercials about video games; and Jeff Goldblum was just doing his Jeff Goldblum thing, bringing everything back to a sci-fi book he’s reading, the name of which was unclear.
Chart interlude
Just friends? The best CMOs, according to a new McKinsey analysis, are “unifiers,” who foster “robust, collaborative partnerships across the C-suite.” (Especially with those pesky, naysaying CFOs.) This archetype is relatively rare, though, with the bulk of CMOs acting like semi-effective “friends” or, worse, “loners.”
Seen and heard
“You can’t ignore the past but you can redeem yourself if you work for it.”—Marc Pritchard, chief brand officer of Procter & Gamble, on Gillette’s ad about toxic masculinity
“In academia we don’t have conferences on yachts.”—Lasana Harris, University College London
Sketches of Cannes, in three acts…
The scene: On either side of the velvet rope outside a beach house
Person 1: “Hi! How are you?”
Person 2: “Great! I’m going to a private island!”
The scene: At a branded beach
Quartz reporter: “So…” [Begins conducting interview]
Beach attendant, running over in panic: “You can’t sit here! It’s all reserved! We’ve got celebrities coming!”
The scene: At a different branded beach
Quartz reporter: What did you learn this week at Cannes?
Brand exec: I can’t tell you, because I want to make money.
Haiku of the day
AI is styling
digital supermodels.
What will humans wear?
News from around the world
Hong Kong protesters renewed their efforts. After chief executive Carrie Lam failed to withdraw the controversial China extradition bill by the protesters’ stated deadline yesterday, people heeded calls for further rallies and again occupied the main road outside of government offices.
Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt are the last men standing in the British PM bakeoff. By the fifth and final round of voting among Tory MPs the remaining contender, Michael Gove, was knocked out so narrowly that Johnson’s team was accused of a tactical ploy. The two will now campaign for the votes of 160,000 Tory members—Johnson is favored to win.
Slack soared in its stock market debut. The workplace communication platform saw shares reach $42 in early trading, for a $21 billion valuation. The move to go public with a direct listing rather than a traditional IPO is a first for a Silicon Valley darling, and may open the floodgates for more companies to pursue the route.
Matters of debate
You can make the most of your inevitable professional decline. Instead of dreading it, reset the way you define your worth.
The deep sea is more important than deep space. We need more stories and movies about the ocean to inspire us to take better care of it.
Smart homes remain frustratingly dumb. The convoluted processes involved make getting up to turn off a light yourself seem much more convenient.
Surprising discoveries
The trade war could drive up Bible prices. China is the world’s largest publisher of the holy Christian text.
The location and date of Tbilisi’s first pride parade is a closely guarded secret. The last time LGBTQ activists held a demonstration in Georgia six years ago, priests and conservatives attacked them.
Ho Chi Minh’s corpse is getting some work done. Vietnam has called in an international team of experts to help preserve the embalmed body of its founding leader.
Et voilà, c’est fini. Our best wishes for an inspiring day at the festival and a safe trip home. Consult our Cannes cheat sheet one last time for details about all the boats, beach huts, villas, and cabanas around town.
The Cannes Daily Brief was brought to you by Jason Karaian, Jenni Avins, Cassie Werber, late nights, and Zach Seward. Haiku by Daianna from Thoughtful Works. À bientôt and stay in touch!
