The weather in Cannes is normally dependable: high 20s and sunny. And the latest hot trend is always being discussed on the beaches or in the Palais. AI seemed to be at the top of most people’s list. Elon Musk confirming that AI is coming for our jobs in his chat with Mark Read wasn’t really that much of a surprise, but it was refreshing that Elon didn’t shy away from its seismic impact. So, yes AI in its various forms dominated the chats in Cannes. Many talked about the theory of it or the effect it might have on the industry.
Getty Images went a stage further and demonstrated its latest generative tool with four promoters going head-to-head. Their tool is trained on its own dataset, so is 100% legal for commercial use. The results however were less than remarkable: they looked like stock images. Now this was only a 15-minute demo, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, and congratulate them for putting their money where their mouth is.
At the back end of the week, the weather in Cannes was grey with a few heavy downpours. With our changing climate, for every degree of warming the air holds 7% more moisture, so things are going to get wetter. Games being stopped at the Euros due to the threat of lightning strikes bears testimony to that. But there seemed to be a lack of big meaningful conversation around climate and sustainability in Cannes. Over the years there have been disruptive activations highlighting the climate crisis at the festival, from heads in the sand burials to raiding the WPP beach.
But have we gone back to business as usual?
Take Coca-Cola’s Grand Prix as an example. It’s lovely design work, encouraging the public to recycle its cans. Yes, it’s beautifully crafted, but the jury must have missed the irony of commending one of the world’s biggest single-use plastic polluters for a campaign that tells the public to recycle. This could be called green shifting, as it shifts the focus from the company’s responsibilities to the consumer.
According to Greenpeace, the company produces 100 billion single-use plastic bottles a year. So, whether you call it greenwashing, green lighting or green shifting, shouldn’t we be awarding creative ideas that help address the real issues?
Despite the misguided award for Coke, another Cannes jury did award silver to The Plastic Forecast for Minderoo out of Australia. It’s a data visualisation of the plastic composition of our rainfall which went out on broadcast TV alongside the standard weather forecast.
It’s actually pretty depressing as it shows the amount of plastic in the rain that’s due to fall, but as Minderoo’s Tony Worby states, this is one forecast we are in control of and a daily reminder that plastic production is pushing our planet to breaking point.
So as for a forecast for next year’s Cannes Lions, I’d love to see the conversation around sustainability being dialled up and a commitment from the juries to call out greenwashing. Cannes should also ensure that the juries are educated about what constitutes a greenwash, so that the storm of empty gestures gives way to a brighter horizon where authentic sustainability initiatives shine through.
Featured image: Jayanth Muppaneni / Unsplash
