Hasta La Creative!

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AB InBev CMO breaks Bud Light silence

Anheuser-Busch InBev Global Chief Marketing Officer Marcel Marcondes used the Cannes main stage today to make his first public comments since the brewer’s promotion of transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney for Bud Light incited conservative backlash beginning in April. The brewer—this year’s recipient of the Cannes Creative Marketer of the Year award—has been widely criticized from all political sides about how it handled the uproar. The message from Marcondes: Bud Light is “humbled” by the controversy and will focus its marketing on “bringing people together.” (Translation: It will avoid anything that could be deemed political at any level.) That effort is expected to begin this week with a new round of ads from its ongoing “Easy to Drink, Easy to Enjoy” campaign.  

Read more from Marcondes’ speech here

Publicis seeks the last laugh and Disney does AR

Another Marcel made waves along the Croisette today—this one belonging to Publicis Groupe. The holding company is promoting its AI talent management tool, which goes by Marcel, via an outdoor campaign at Cannes. The ads take shots at those who were skeptical of the tool when plans for it were first announced in 2017. “Is it OK to talk about AI in Cannes now?” reads the campaign’s punchline. 

Not only is it OK, but it is also everywhere, with countless AI panels slated for this week. Another “A” word—augmented reality—is also getting attention, including in an exhibit from Disney. The entertainment giant is celebrating its 100th anniversary by partnering with Snap’s AR Mirror, allowing festival-goers to try on AR lenses related to its latest big films and series. 

See examples of other AR efforts at Cannes in our blog

Award demand

Newsflash: Ad people still love awards, especially Americans. Cannes Lions said it received 26,992 entries this year, up 6% from 2022—including 7,303 U.S. entries, far outpacing No. 2 U.K. (2,201). See the full country breakdown on our blog. Of course, the ROI of all those entries won’t be determined until the festival finishes announcing all winners this week. But Ad Age reached out to top creative leaders for their take on who should win. You can see those predictions here. Not satisfied with those hot takes? Well, a platform called The Loudest Roar is encouraging emerging talents worldwide to predict winners, as reported in our blog.

The Cannes winners circle

Of course, some of the awards have already been announced. Today’s haul includes:

Uncommon’s ‘A British Original’ for British Airways wins Outdoor Grand Prix

Lebanon’s AnNahar newspaper wins Print Grand Prix at Cannes for second straight year

Working With Cancer Pledge’ by Publicis wins Cannes Health Grand Prix for Good

Partners Life’s crime drama campaign wins Health and Wellness Grand Prix

Dentsu Creative’s ‘Scrolling Therapy’ for Eurofarma wins Pharma Grand Prix

New Zealand telecom provider Skinny’s guerilla radio campaign wins Radio & Audio Grand Prix

See all the Grand Prix winners in one place

Google and Disney pair up

Besides the award competition, the biggest contest at Cannes is who can generate interest via product announcements and other news drops. And there was plenty of that on Monday—including Disney announcing it would use Google’s ad tech product, known as PAIR, which is aimed at helping Disney advertisers with better targeting and measurement for ads on properties including Disney+ and Hulu. Disney is the largest media company to commit to PAIR, which comes as Google prepares to end Chrome cookies in 2024.

Number of the day

$20 billion: About how much ad spending is wasted on ineffective ad placements on bad websites, according to a report the Association of National Advertisers issued at Cannes.

Read more: Advertisers waste 23% of programmatic ad dollars, ANA study finds

Quotable

“If this is a little bit of a stuttering performance, it’s cause I got in at three o’clock this morning. No, I wasn’t at the Gutter Bar”—Martin Sorrell, executive chairman of S4 Capital, joking on stage about the flight delays many executives encountered on the way to Cannes.

Read more about travel complications in our blog

“I think it’s an enormous expenditure.”—former General Motors global CMO Deborah Wahl on why she did not often go to Cannes.

“A morning dip in the ocean down the quiet end of the beach will set you up for the day”— Tara Ford, chief creative officer, The Monkeys, gives a Cannes pro tip, as part of Ad Age’s weeklong series in which creatives share insights about their nominated work and other Cannes insights. 

Check out the new series about creatives here