16685: A Guide To Understanding Exclusivity At Cannes.

 

Campaign published a performative PR perspective on a ‘difficult yet essential subject’—sexual harassment at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

 

Seems White women are damsels in distress at the iconic awards soiree. Although their alleged trials and tribulations pale in comparison to the bullshit thrown at women of color.

 

A couple of advocacy groups teamed up to create a guide to understanding sexual harassment. Yeah, that should solve matters. Expect opportunistic morons to submit the heat shield for a Glass Lion.

 

To underscore how White women are prized and prioritized over racial and ethnic groups, it should be noted that no one has volunteered to publish a Green Book for non-White festival attendees.

 

Oh, and security should’ve kept an eye on all FCB and former DraftFCB visitors.

 

Sexual harassment at Cannes: a ‘difficult yet essential subject’

 

By Karen Stacey

 

There are a lot of inspiring lessons to be learned at Cannes, but we shouldn’t ever let the hectic schedule and fun make us lose sight of what is truly important; taking personal responsibility for our actions, and taking responsibility for those around us.

 

So, before we all get our delegate badges and start scheduling talks and seminars, it’s vital that we’re all fully educated about this difficult yet essential subject. This isn’t just for visitors and managers on the ground, it goes for senior leaders back home, too.

 

We know that, sadly, sexual harassment still exists and it can happen anywhere, but the risks rise when alcohol is free-flowing and people are away from home. We also know that what starts as a fun trip can quickly become a nightmare for anyone who experiences sexual harassment.

 

That’s why this year, Cannes Lions has teamed up with TimeTo and Wildstorm PR to create an invaluable guide to understanding the issues around sexual harassment. Not just in Cannes, but anywhere outside of the office where the drink is flowing and the inhibitions are dropping.

 

The move is designed to create and foster a supportive environment of respect and accountability, where anyone attending in any capacity feels secure and empowered to enjoy themselves safely and to speak up about sexual harassment, should they need to.

 

The onus shouldn’t solely be on individuals. People need to trust that employers, event organisers and others with a duty of care are looking out for them. Everyone attending must play a part in addressing this issue – either by stepping in if they see it happening, or stopping if they are perpetrating it.

 

That is what this guide does so well. It helps navigate the grey areas around sexual harassment by splitting its core messaging into three distinct sections tailored to employers, employees and delegates. Each section offers a specific focus for that audience and provides guidance for before, during, and after the festival.

 

Examples of guidance include advice before Cannes for senior leaders, managers and HR to establish and make clear policies and procedures; ensuring policies including anti-harassment guidance; outlining what constitutes harassment; the consequences for engaging in such behaviour; and the procedures for reporting incidents.

 

It also offers helpful advice for all attendees at Cannes, including connecting with others and having a support system for uncomfortable situations. This year, the WACL Empower Café provides a safe space for those affected by sexual harassment, offering guidance on the next steps alongside the guide’s information.

 

Additionally, it addresses the barriers to reporting sexual harassment. Incidents that occur at the event may not be reported until participants have returned to the UK, highlighting the importance of creating a supportive environment in the moment for any disclosures.

 

If you notice a friend or colleague behaving in a way that’s offensive or inappropriate, and you feel safe addressing it, speak up. You can let them know that their behaviour isn’t acceptable and point out the impact. Sometimes, people need a new perspective on their actions.

 

So, when you’re packing your slides or flip-flops and sunscreen or picking up your lanyard, grab the guide as well.

 

But if you really feel you won’t get anything from it or that you don’t have the time, then maybe just take a few seconds while you’re at passport control or queueing for croissants and think about these things:

 

• Take the safety of your team seriously

 

• Lead by example

 

• Put guardrails in place

 

• Take your own safety seriously

 

• Treat people politely and like human beings

 

• Don’t make people feel awkward – don’t force them to have another drink, listen to what they are saying and read their responses.

 

It’s basically as simple as treating everyone you meet with respect.

 

Karen Stacey is the chief executive of Digital Cinema Media, and outgoing vice-president and incoming president of WACL

 

16684: Detecting BS—And Deflecting Accountability—At Publicis Groupe.

 

As part of its coverage for Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Campaign published perspectives from holding company CEOs on making the business case for creativity investment in the wondrous age of AI.

 

The series reads like essays drafted by the holding companies’ respective PR departments—although it would have been more appropriate to generate the corporate content via AI.

 

Regardless, Publicis Groupe Chairman and CEO Arthur Sadoun leveraged the opportunity to create shameless self-promotion for his White holding company, unveiling a “BS detector bot”—while opening and closing by declaring, “Imagine what we could achieve if we all took the BS out of AI.”

 

For starters, if the BS detector bot were to directly engage with Publicis Groupe, it would explode from being overloaded by the endless bullshit that the White holding company excretes.

 

To make a sloppy segue, Sadoun’s declaration—Imagine what we could achieve if we all took the BS out of AI—must be explored through the lens of AI standing for Artificial Inclusivity.

 

Imagine if Adland—or even just Publicis Groupe—took the BS out of DEIBA+ commitments. Envision the elimination of performative PR, heat shields, Human Heat Shields, underfunded diversity budgets, crumbs, delegating diversity, diversity committees, embryo recruitment, ERGs, broken promises, faux dedication, outright lies, and more.

 

Indeed, it’s impossible to consider such a scenario, as the foundation of AI is BS.

 

Hell, Publicis Groupe absolutely prioritizes Artificial Intelligence well ahead of diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, allyship, justice, etc. Technology trumps responsibility, accountability, and respect.

 

Systemic racism is the ultimate achievement.

 

Imagine what we could achieve if we took the BS out of AI

 

By Arthur Sadoun

 

“In reality, it is not creativity that evolves: it stays the same. It is everything else that grows around it.”

 

Those words are as true today as they were in 1958 when Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet, the founder of Publicis, first said them.

 

Creativity, its power and its importance at our group has never changed. And neither has the case we make for investing in it: creativity is the added value that we bring, which has the ability to transform the future of our clients’ businesses.

 

It is how a small hotshop, created in Montmartre almost 100 years ago, became the market leader on every front today.

 

What does change, as our founder said, is how we anticipate and adapt to everything “that evolves around” creativity. It won’t come as a surprise when I say that, right now, this means artificial intelligence.

 

It’s everywhere in our industry. We’re all caught up in announcing the same “exclusive” partnerships, everyone is obsessed by generative AI content, and each prediction and promise around AI seems more overblown than the last.

 

The AI revolution has created some hype, a bit of fear, and – excuse my French – a lot of BS. And you don’t just have to take my word for it, you can click here to see what I mean.

 

On one side you have the Sam Altmans of the world, who are prophesying that AI will kill off our entire industry. That’s BS.

 

Anyone who thinks AI will take our jobs or replace human creativity is lacking in imagination, foresight or both.

 

At Publicis, we have been putting AI at the heart of our operations and into the hands of our people since 2017.

 

In that time, we’ve gone from a 70,000-strong organisation to 100,000, with several thousand more people set to join us this year.

 

Then you have those in our industry who position AI as the great saviour of all their business challenges and organisational woes.

 

Let’s be honest, AI is not the solution to siloed legacy structures and a lack of capabilities. So that’s BS, too.

 

The truth is AI can only be fully leveraged if you have unique proprietary data, a single infrastructure and tech innovation expertise.

 

At Publicis, when others were buying back shares, we were buying technology and data, investing more than €9bn in the acquisitions of Sapient and Epsilon.

 

We also did the hard work of simplifying our organization, putting into place the Power of One.

 

And we can’t forget how we radically changed our culture, implementing AI for all of our people with our Marcel platform, long before AI was de rigeur.

 

Today, seven years after we launched Marcel in Cannes, we’re back on the Croisette to take the BS out of AI.

 

To hold ourselves accountable, we have created a BS detector bot that will translate the AI hype and jargon clients encounter into straight-up refreshing talk, while also prompting critical questions to ask themselves and their partners – starting with us.

 

We are also holding 30 closed-door sessions for clients to share real AI apps, customised to their specific industries, driving to real business outcomes, not cute gen AI output.

 

Everyone talks about investing in creativity. In Cannes, we all dedicate a lot of time, money, and carbon emissions to celebrate it. But, so far, we haven’t been having the right conversations about what it takes to get the best out of AI for creativity that drives business.

 

So let’s check ourselves, get off the AI hype loop and imagine what we could achieve if we all took the BS out of AI.

 

Arthur Sadoun is the chairman and chief executive of Publicis Groupe

 

16683: No One Does It Like The Bull. Sort of.

 

Merrill Lynch says, “The bull has your back.” Ok, but this looks like a flashback tribute to a Schlitz Malt Liquor concept.

 

16682: Systemic Racism—Checkmate.

 

The Trade Desk depicts “the industry leaders redefining marketing” as gold-plated kings lording over White pawns. Perfect.

16681: IPG Health Experiences Side Effects Of Pfizer Withdrawal.

 

Advertising Age reported IPG extended its pruning, as IPG Health confirmed cutting 5% of its staff—placing most of the blame on the Pfizer fiasco. Didn’t bother to read the full story, so not sure if the move is in addition to the 9% staff reduction at FCB Chicago, which was also blamed on the Pfizer shift.

 

It just goes to show that not only does pharmaceutical advertising suck, but working for White pharmaceutical advertising agencies sucks too—especially when the shops service sucky pharmaceutical clients.

16680: DEIBA+ Not Working At Worklife.

 

As noted last year, Digiday Media’s Worklife quietly removed DE&I from its display content categories. A closer look shows the publishing of DE&I-related content is significantly lessening too, perfectly reflecting Adland’s waning interest in equality and justice.

 

The section is described as follows:

 

In-depth news and analysis that spotlights where and how diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace need improvement, and what employers are doing to address this.

 

Yep, there’s simply not much to spotlight.

16679: Just A Few Closing Thoughts On Juneteenth In Adland.

 

Just a few closing thoughts on Juneteenth in Adland, aka Wednesday. Or just another exhibition of exclusive excess at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity—as Advertising Age, Adweek, and Campaign continued coverage of the awards soiree without pausing to acknowledge the holiday. In short, the trade publications perfectly reflect the global industry.

 

White advertising agencies undoubtedly took the day off—in numerous ways.

 

Any agencywide emails commemorating Juneteenth were likely drafted by Chief Diversity Officers. Except in shops employing non-Blacks as the CDO, whereby the nettlesome task was probably delegated to the resident Black ERG.

 

In even more cases, the holiday was ignored completely. Or disregarded due to general ignorance, cultural cluelessness, and passive bias—the foundational trifecta of systemic racism.

 

For the enlightened, Juneteenth is known as Freedom Day. Yet in Adland, the ruling majority enjoy freedom from responsibility and accountability, refusing to make good on promises and commitments to do the right thing.

 

Expect the disinterest to extend in the days, months, and years ahead, fortifying the industry’s inability, unwillingness, and failure to address DEIBA+ concerns.

 

Elie Wiesel wrote: The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.

 

Industry—and individual—indifference inspires the dearth of diversity. Just a thought.

16678: Are Adland’s Juneteenth Initiatives Historical Or Hysterical?

 

Adweek published a perspective presenting polite proposals for White brands and White advertising agencies seeking to acknowledge Juneteenth—going so far as to say it’s OK to sit the holiday out versus clumsily crafting cultural cluelessness communications.

 

Hey, regarding DEIBA+ initiatives, White brands and White ad agencies regularly sit things out. Or celebrate with crumb cakes.

 

Sometimes, It’s OK to Sit Juneteenth Out

 

If your brand has not supported the Black community year-round, stepping up now will only seem disingenuous

 

By Brennan Nevada Johnson

 

In its fourth year as a federal holiday, Juneteenth has arrived; it’s a day that is observed to commemorate the freedom of enslaved Black people in the U.S. So much historical significance comes with Juneteenth, yet since the George Floyd murder, there has been a frenzy of stereotypical marketing campaigns and communications by different brands trying to make a quick buck or grow their customer base.

 

A big oversight in our industry is that brands feel the need to prove that they are a part of every single social cause.

 

Do everyone a favor: Pause. Reflect before you hit send on that Juneteenth statement. To avoid embarrassing mistakes, below are the top do’s and don’ts for appropriately observing Juneteenth personally and professionally.

 

Don’t use your Black employees

 

One of the biggest faux pas companies make year after year on Juneteenth is using it as a jumping-off point to check in on Black talent.

 

Black employees know it’s not about Juneteenth. It’s about the lack of actions the 11 other months out of the year. When I worked for corporate America, I was hardly supported and would be ignored by my managers. But the second it became Black History Month or Juneteenth, I would suddenly have back-to-back meetings booked on my calendar by absentee bosses to see “how I’m doing.” Ditch this all together. It is not only uncomfortable but also incredibly disingenuous.

 

Show support all the time. That’s what matters. Also, if you want to organize an event around Juneteenth, that’s great. But please refrain from expecting and turning to your Black team members to organize it. This is not a photo opportunity to show diversity within the company.

 

Do learn the history and meaning

 

Many companies communicating and posting about Juneteenth still don’t know its history. This is almost like raising your hand in class to show how smart you are, and then answering the question incorrectly. It throws off everyone around you. You’re only setting yourself up to fail.

 

Avoid going into a full-blown preachy mode to colleagues, customers and friends. If you haven’t committed to doing all you can professionally and personally to amplify and back the Black community, then it’s best not to post anything on Juneteenth. Yes, you read that right—sit this one out. The time to take meaningful action is year-round.

 

Brands successfully jump into storytelling mode when they are in a position to educate on the topic. Hold on to that statement, that Slack message and the campaign that is essentially a “learning series” until you truly absorb the meaning of Juneteenth.

 

Don’t miss the opportunity to do better

 

Juneteenth is a chance for us all to try to improve and do better.

 

Start small. Lofty, impossible promises will only make matters worse and have little progress. Don’t follow in the footsteps of what brands did four years ago with huge claims for Black people that went nowhere. You want to ensure you can follow through on what you hope to accomplish.

 

This can be as simple as buying Black-owned products, outsourcing Black-owned businesses, eating out at a Black-owned restaurant, donating to Black-owned charities, hiring Black talent and even referring your Black colleague to senior positions of power. You’d be surprised by how far these acts can go.

 

Internally, companies can create actionable and strategic roadmaps that audit systems and leverage data to show how racism is perpetuated subconsciously. This can take shape in company surveys to illuminate unconscious bias that may be feeding systemic racism. Numbers don’t lie. This should go deeper than implementing seasonal DEI programs that involve and hold leadership accountable to becoming more active allies to BIPOC communities.

 

Remember, Juneteenth is the time to start creating lasting equity, amplification and opportunity for Black people while also recognizing the disparities Black communities face. Whatever you do or decide not to do, just ensure it is respectful and goes beyond one day of the year.