Celebrities flocked to Cannes Lions as “entertainment” day descended on the festival. We look back at some of the highlights…
Day 5
Day five at Cannes was Lions Entertainment, bringing with it a flock of celebrity names, discussing their careers, the issues that concern them and their relationships with brands and the advertising industry.
Sir Ian McKellen, speaking at the Brooklyn Brothers session Telling a Good Story, spoke of the similarities between the stars of stage and screen and brands: “There are two types of actors, the stars and the rest of us. Stars are the personification of branding. They’re always the same. You don’t want to see Mick Jagger singing opera.”
He brought his personal experience to bear on the ad industry: “I don’t know enough about your world, but if the branding is about lying, about assuming something about your audience, if it’s not about genuinely trying to relate to them, I suspect that branding will go wrong.”
At the session All Worth It: L’Oreal and Dame Helen Mirren Redefine Diversity, the actor discussed the importance of self-belief for creativity, and the importance of humility: “What forces you through as a creative person is the balance between incredible belief in yourself parallel with incredible self-doubt. It’s the battle between the two that creates a brilliant moment.”
Fashion designer Alexander Wang took to the stage to discuss his work with Adidas, encouraging creatives to be brave: “Don’t be afraid to ask questions. The best ideas don’t have to come from the top. Usually they don’t. Encourage yourself to challenge the status quo and ask questions, ask why things can’t be done differently.”
The celebrity guests grabbed the headlines, but amongst the industry names speaking, Keith Weed of Unilever took top billing. During his session, he took the opportunity to announce the launch of Unstereotype Alliance, a new initiative with UN Women, to ensure more representative advertising across the industry: “Advertising doesn’t represent where we think society should be, or even where society is right now.”
Day 6
At Getty Images Seeing is Believing: The Power of Re-picturing Stereotypes panel, actor and writer Lena Waithe discussed how to change attitudes and ensure better representation across the media: “We have to make people uncomfortable. When we continue to do things that make society at large feel comfortable we regress.”
Piera Gelardi of Refinery29 thinks brands and media at least have to try: ‘You need to try. You have to try, and you might get it wrong. If you get it wrong, you admit it and you try again.”
Stereotyping was also central to the P&G Creativity and Responsibility: Using Our Voices to Promote Gender Equality session, Madonna Badger discussed how brands can know if their work is objectifying women: “There’s a simple way: empathy. With our hearts and minds, look at the piece of advertising and ask ‘what if this was my daughter, mother, sister or me, would I be OK with this?’ If the answer is no, then it’s not OK.”
Also on the panel was Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg: “We have to acknowledge the stereotype that exists, and change it. When a young girl is called ‘bossy’, tell their parents ‘she’s not bossy, she has executive leadership skills’. Admitting that all of us have that stereotype is the first thing we need to change.”
