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If seven years is a dog year, then seven days is a Cannes year. Thinking back to earlier this week feels like an eternity ago. Since then, I’ve met some great people, eaten many finger foods, and watched people smash €29 drinks in the Carlton hotel lobby. It’s been quite the experience. Now I need a nap.
Yesterday I met Alvin Bowles, who’s in his third week leading Meta’s ad sales in the Americas, at a Meta press breakfast. I also spoke to Duncan Meisel, executive director of Clean Creatives, after the group quite literally pointed fingers (or, rather, signs) at Richard Edelman and other Edelman execs over the company’s continued work with fossil-fuel clients.
“We’ve been focused on Edelman because they do more work with fossil-fuel leaders than any agency we know of,” Meisel told me. “They have clearly changed some policy, but we don’t know how substantive that is, and they’ve also increased their work with companies that are doing a lot of damage. So we think Edelman, as a leader in the industry, has a special responsibility to lead on this.” (Edelman issued a statement to Ad Age in response to the protest, which you can read here.)
After a quick jaunt down the Croisette, I watched a panel with filmmaker Spike Lee and Shannon Watkins, global CMO of Jordan Brand, at Sport Beach, and then worked my way back up toward the Palais to check out the Wall Street Journal House, which frankly felt more like Soho House.
The hot ticket last night was TikTok’s beach party, which had lines to get in that rivaled those of Foo Fighters fans the night before. The general consensus, it seems, is that Thursday night is the last “real” night of Cannes, although I spoke with people who said they were peacing out by Wednesday. And then there’s me, who’s here until Saturday. Rookie mistake, I guess.
Even with some people gone, the energy was high last night, particularly among award winners, and I saw more than a few rosé bottles the size of a toddler being passed around. I also bumped into someone on my way out of the bar and realized it was Jameela Jamil.
This industry, man. We’ll see you next year!