Cannes Lions 24, Marketing & Advertising News, ET Brand Equity

As the creative race heats up, the creative industry's unity was essential at Lions 24. It has never been an easy road for the advertising industry. With business and pricing models changing rapidly, and AI and machine learning evolving unimaginably over time, it was inspiring and invigorating to catch a glimpse of human imagination blossoming. AI felt like a run-of-the-mill hustling creative in everyone's office, someone we love to work with, but who wishes he could be better. As I walked around the basement of the Palais, where all the shortlisted works were on display, and connected the dots with the sessions of the amazing speakers, a few things stood out to me.

1. AI makes great ideas even better.

AI won't think for us, nor should it. But it can help us take big creative leaps. Many campaigns, like Heinz's ongoing AI-powered campaign “It has to be Heinz” or Marcel's deepfake “women's soccer team,” use AI in ways that are true to the brand's ethos and help augment incredible human insights.

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2. Mindless AI advertising will set us back decades

In Lord Hegarty's Orlando session with System1, we talked about advertising in the early 60s, which was all about salesmanship – flashy posters urging consumers to “try this, buy that”. In the late 70s and early 80s, advertising moved towards “showmanship” – elegantly packaged products and brands as entertainment pieces. After all, no one is going to buy from someone they don't like.

AI-generated ads that don't have human truth at their core can be delivered at scale, but they're not very useful for brands — and who wants to buy from an online stalker anyway?

3. Doing what we do best: being human.

The new categories introduced to this year's Lions, Humor and Luxury & Lifestyle, are a sign that the creative industry is finding areas of the human imagination that humans can still own. AI isn't very funny yet; its humor isn't observational, and it doesn't know how to make a room full of people laugh with irreverence. The categories are a way for creators to tune into their emotive abilities and find humor in humanity. They also serve to bring back some lightness to creative entries that have taken on a more serious and somber tone over the past few years.

Adding luxury and lifestyle to the mix also feels like an attempt to humanize an inherently cold category that AI is more likely to enter.

4. The basics are timeless

Humans have never been more easily programmable than they are today. We all see the same things, use our phones, and consume media designed to force our thoughts and biases into our minds. In some ways, humans are at risk of turning into AI. To protect our creativity, we need to return to our basic ability to think, feel, and imagine better stories for ourselves, our brands, and our fellow humans.

Cannes Lions is not just an advertising festival. It is a festival that celebrates creative possibility. Real or fake, in my opinion, is irrelevant. It is a festival that depicts the world that can be realized when creative people put their courage and conviction into it. I will be there with wine-stained clothes, sandy shoes, and a head full of possibility.

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