Jane Austin: Adland is stuck in an AI-sized bubble – plus a memory of someone who put people before expediency

The big lesson from Cannes? The industry’s living in an AI-generated dream world

A fascist president is wreaking global havoc from the White House, the US has bombed Iran, Putin is still bombing Kiev, genocide is taking place in Gaza, and the planet is on its death bed.

But you wouldn’t think any of that was going on based on the conversations at Cannes this week. AI, it would seem, is the biggest issue to grapple with.

If this year’s festival showed us anything, it’s that the global ad industry is operating in a bubble of own making, and it seems to have zero interest in, or care for, what’s going on in the real world.

If you’re looking around for different themes and trends coming out of Cannes this year, save your energy. There was only one topic on the table, and that was AI. And even the discussions around AI didn’t go much beyond platitudes. Notably, some of the big tech players and ad networks tried to soften their messaging on AI in a bid to reassure an industry facing an existential crisis that there will always be a place for human creativity. Less reassuringly, they kept the details on where that place would be extremely vague.

I appreciate the industry can be toe-curlingly hypocritical when it comes to corporate responsibility, and, let’s face it, it’s pretty much always operated in a bubble. But at least the spotlight at Cannes used to encompass a range of topics, spanning gender equality and climate change. When Russia invaded Ukraine, there were lots of initiatives launched at Cannes Lions to help the people of Ukraine. By contrast, no one said a word about Gaza this week.

The lack of focus on any real issue (outside of AI), left me wishing that an activist group, like Greenpeace or Extinction Rebellion, would parachute in so we could, at the very least, change the subject.

Trump’s attack on DEI has not only seen brands spinelessly rolling back on their commitments but an entire industry go silent.

The ad industry isn’t just ignoring the world outside, it’s also deluding itself about the issues within. The private conversations going on at the festival were very different to the public ones. The back-slapping over award-winning work on stage at the Palais belied the extreme dissatisfaction felt by many.

What hope is there for the next generation entering an industry that seems so detached from itself and reality? If adland really wants to avoid extinction, it could start by putting a bigger investment into creative education and key institutions like the Brixton Academy and Miami Ad School.

One of the few talks at the Palais this week that touched on anything meaningful was from Edelman, which issued a warning to the industry about the world’s “descent into grievance”, as public trust in governments, NGOs, media outlets is plummeting. The company’s CEO Richard Edelman warned that we’re entering a compelling leadership moment for brands where “silence is not an option”. “Do not put your head down and assume the storm will pass,” Edelman said.

Sadly, many speakers just didn’t keep their heads down, they buried them deep in the sand.

Lessons in trailblazing from Shonda Rhimes and Iona Specht

One of my hopes for Cannes going forward is that we stop seeing ad bosses interviewing celebrity speakers on stage. Conducting an interview in front of an audience should really be left to the professionals, by which I mean journalists skilled in uncovering insights and drawing out a compelling a narrative from an interviewee.

When ad network bosses try to take the role of interviewer it can feel like a missed opportunity, and quite a cringe-inducing one at that.

This year we had WPP’s Mark Read interviewing Shonda Rhimes, the creator of Grey’s Anatomy and Bridgerton, on stage at the Palais. At one point Read remarked that Rhimes’ characters are always strong women. “You like strong women,” he said.
In a comeback that was hands-down my favourite quote of Cannes week, Rhimes replied: “Well, I don’t know any weak women.”

On the subject of strong women, it was encouraging to see female-focused winning work this year, from Dove “Real Beauty” to AXA “Three Words”.

One that’s particularly close to my heart is L’Oréal’s Grand-Prix-winning documentary about Ilon Specht, the creative genius who came up with one of the most famous taglines in the history of advertising: “Because I’m worth it.”

Specht was a copywriter in the 1970s at McCann, and when working on a campaign for L’Oréal, she defied all the men at the agency by insisting that the ad come from a woman’s perspective. The copy she wrote changed advertising forever.

Specht participated in the documentary knowing she didn’t have long to live after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, and she passed away, at the age of 81, just a couple of months before the film launched.

Even on her deathbed, Specht’s wisdom, wit and defiance were on full beam. In the documentary, she spoke about her anger at how the male-dominated ad industry objectified women, saying: “I’m not interested in writing anything about looking good for men – fuck em.”

“I’m not interested in advertising. I don’t give a shit,” she said. “It’s about humans, it’s not about advertising. It’s about caring for people. Because we’re all worth it, or no one is worth it.”

How sad that this brilliant woman is no longer around, and what a joy to know her wisdom and rebel spirit will live on forever.

Jane Austin is the founder and owner of Persuasion. Communications.