Hasta La Creative!

While the gender gap in average wages has been steadily closing, a wide chasm still exists when it comes to men’s and women’s sports and advertising spend. Ally Bank is trying to address that disparity in its own way. And the online-only financial institution, which specializes in home and auto lending, aims to influence others…

[Sensitive content: This article discusses sexual assault, gender-based violence and medical abuse. If you’re struggling with any of the topics mentioned in this article, please call the National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1 (800) 656-4673] Recent history is full of reminders that antiquated views around the autonomy of marginalized genders remain prevalent around the world. The…

The minimum age to use Instagram in most countries is 13, but it has been established for years that many people younger than that are on the platform, and Instagram is testing new ways to help alleviate that. Starting Thursday in the U.S., if a user attempts to edit their date of birth from under…

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Netflix is playing the field when it comes to choosing an ad partner

First things first: So when, exactly, is Netflix launching its lower-priced ad-supported tier? Well, Netflix is “still working on that,” the streamer’s Co-CEO Ted Sarandos—the Cannes Lions 2022 Entertainment Person of the Year—said in a one-on-one interview with New York Magazine Editor-At-Large Kara Swisher, per Ad Age’s Parker Herren.

Um, can you be more specific, Ted?

 “Sooner than later.”

Got it.

Essential context: “In Cannes, rumors have been swirling throughout the week that Netflix would be sealing the deal on partnerships for its developing ad structure,” Herren writes. “Google has been in conversations with Netflix this week, and when Jon Whitticom, chief product officer at Comcast-owned FreeWheel, was asked about Netflix’s ad offering during an Experian panel, he just said ‘no comment.’”

And then, Herren notes, on-stage with Swisher, “Sarandos brushed off the specifics regarding any ad deal, saying that Netflix is ‘talking to all of them.’”

Keep reading here for Sarandos’ thoughts about the company’s stock decline, that pesky Netflix-buying-Roku rumor, the platform’s continued support of Dave Chapelle, and more.

And you do what, exactly?

Via Seth Rogin, the CEO of Magnolia Media Partners, on Twitter:

“Most popular mysterious job definition at this year’s #CannesLions: ‘I work in transformation.’ Other responses include ‘I’m a secret strategist for companies that don’t like their strategy teams’ and ‘I drag clients into the future.’”

Google’s Allan Thygesen has an encouraging word for creative types

In a one-on-one at Cannes, Ad Age’s Garett Sloane asked Google’s Allan Thygesen, president of Americas and global partners, “What has Google been telling the ad world here?”

His answer: “The overall creative economy, if you can talk to the ad agencies, that part of the business is growing faster than the media business. … [Automation] frees up time and creates more emphasis for the biggest remaining lever for performance, and where humans are essential, which is the strategy and creative.”

Keep reading here for Thygesen’s thoughts about Google’s cookie-killing timeline, the Google-Netflix rumors, the state of YouTube’s upfront negotiations, and why he expects “the advertising industry will pivot more to performance and very results-based advertising.”

We’ll have a Levy on the rocks

On the menu at the bar at the Publicis beach party Thursday night in Cannes: cocktails named after Maurice Levy and Arthur Sadoun.

The Cannes winners circle

Today’s haul includes:

• “Sheba’s ‘Hope Reef’ wins second Cannes Lions award with Grand Prix for Media”

• “Sherwin-Williams’ AI color tool for architects wins inaugural Creative B2B prize”

• “Coinbase ‘lo-fi’ Super Bowl ad takes Direct Grand Prix”

• “‘The Breakaway’ wins second Grand Prix—this time for PR”

• “Vice’s ‘Unfiltered History Tour’ scores third Grand Prix with social and influencer Cannes Lions win”

• “‘Data Tienda’ wins Creative Data Grand Prix for solving an old problem with a modern solution”

See also: “Cannes Lions 2022—Global creative leaders predict the top winners”

Plus: “Cannes Lions Grand Prix All-Stars—where are they now?”

HP launches effort to hire Ukrainian creatives for remote projects

“A day after WPP announced its agencies will do campaigns to promote business investment in Ukraine,” Ad Age’s Jack Neff reports, “HP launched an effort at the Cannes Lions CMO Accelerator to get participants to hire Ukrainian creatives for projects they can do remotely. Both efforts follow Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s emotional livestreamed plea to Cannes Lions attendees on Monday for help from the advertising community for his war-ravaged country.”

Keep reading here.

Quick FYI

Paris Hilton is “sliving.”

Just briefly 

• “??Shell executive faces some heat at the Equality Lounge”—Ad Age’s Jack Neff on a contentious scene at Cannes.

• “The road to Cannes: the same venue with new conversations”—a guest post by Mike Welch of Ad Age Publishing Partner Xandr.

• “Clean Creatives puts Cannes spotlight on industry leaders working with fossil fuel clients”—Ad Age’s Keira Wingate on more anti-fossil-fuel activism at Cannes.

And finally … the hard-hittingest Cannes Lions Festival reporting

“The Sea Squirter didn’t return Page Six’s request for comment.”
—a line from “Sea Squirter yacht gets Cannes’d,” a story about the “‘wettest, naughtiest’ yacht on the Mediterranean” being “canceled in the South of France,” according to the New York Post’s “Page Six” gossip vertical.

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The floating QR code that rocked the Super Bowl received the top prize at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity Thursday, with Coinbase and Accenture Song grabbing the Grand Prix in the Direct category. Grand Prix winners were also announced in the Media category, which garnered Sheba a second Grand Prix, and the brand…

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