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Cannes Lions Debussy Sessions - Day 3

It’s not job-hopping, it’s skill building

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Bozoma Saint John on why the ad industry is in trouble and why job-hopping isn’t as bad as you think.

 

In this behind-the-scenes Q&A, marketing executive, author and entrepreneur Bozoma Saint John discusses skill building in the ad industry. 

What message do you want the audience and act on from your talk?

Bozoma: I want them to live an urgent life. Do it right now.

What is the one thing the industry should worry about right now?

Bozoma: The industry’s in a bit of trouble with talent. We’ve groomed people to do one thing. Our talent now aren’t multi-hyphenates. They don’t have experience to do multiple things. We need that to be more creative.

Would a more open approach to job-hopping have a positive impact on the industry?

Bozoma: Why do we criticize people for leaving their jobs? Let’s be more open. Let’s change the narrative.

Should businesses aim to lock in existing talent or keep a flow of fresh talent coming in?

Bozoma: This is tough because I do believe in helping talent grow in their skill but we have to be aware when an employee has reached their capacity of that learning. We want people to develop, to grow, experience new things. Perhaps our businesses should be more aware of not letting people stagnate.

What do you say to someone who feels like they owe it to their company to stay at their job?

Bozoma: No. You don’t owe it to the company to stay in your job. You owe it to yourself to become more skillful. Drop the mic on that one.

What’s your definition of creativity?

Bozoma: Being your whole badass self.

As the official Canadian representative of Cannes Lions, the world’s most prestigious and coveted advertising and marketing awards, The Globe and Mail will provide insights, ideas, and takeaways from panels and keynotes over the next five days.

Follow Globe Media Group on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter to stay in the know.

Cannes Lions Festival 2022 - The Moment Is Now

Changing the culture of inclusive storytelling

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Ukonwa Ojo and Regina Hall discuss what happens when women tell stories

 

In this behind-the-scenes chat, Ukonwa Ojo, global chief marketing officer, Prime Video & Amazon Studios sits down with actress and producer Regina Hall to discuss creative storytelling and leadership.

What message do you want the message to hear and act on from your talk?

Regina Hall: The message of really hearing and seeing each other and making sure that we are cultivating audiences that really learn to appreciate diverse storytelling. That we’re allowing them to see it and experience it so that becomes normal.

Ukonwa Ojo: I like that experience of the diverse being normal. Because it is normal, just not in the but just not in the stories that we always see.

In 2021, Ukonwa said “in entertainment you get to tell stories that make people dream, that make them laugh or cry, that make them angry or sad.” How does basing stories in emotion enable us to highlight more inclusive storytellers?

Ukonwa: I think that one of the things I’ve learned as a marketer is that we think we make decisions with our heads, but we actually make decisions with our heart, but we validate it with rationale. Connecting with people emotionally allows us to connect with them from a heart basis and then they’re make some of those changes.

Where does gender play a role in storytelling?

Regina: It’s very important because it adds a different perspective. Energetically. You can get a male or female to direct or non-binary but there are points of view that people have, and I feel like that is somehow is included in the storytelling even if it’s not conscious. It affects how an audience receives things because it’s subtle but it’s gigantic.

Ukonwa: The feminine energy brings something different?

Regina: Oh totally. It is patient, it gives space, room and air.

What is your definition of creativity?

Ukonwa: For me, creativity makes you give a damn. You’re going along your merry way, and someone injects creativity and it makes you pay attention and it breaks you from your monotony. To see things we’ve never seen before, feel things we’ve never seen before.

Regina: Creativity has so many forms. When I watch films, I often think “I would’ve never connected those dots.” It shows up in so many areas where the creative spark exists.

What is the one thing you think the industry should worry about right now?

Ukonwa: Each other. Humanity. I think there’s just so much going on in the world right now and we can’t keep acting like none of it is happening. In the spirit of creativity, and what makes people care, this is the industry that’s going to cause the world to do things differently. We can’t continue the way we’re going right now. This group could chart a different course for us all.

As the official Canadian representative of Cannes Lions, the world’s most prestigious and coveted advertising and marketing awards, The Globe and Mail will provide insights, ideas, and takeaways from panels and keynotes over the next five days.

Follow Globe Media Group on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter to stay in the know.

Cannes Lions Festival 2022 - The Moment Is Now

Cannes Lions: Day 3 Wrap-Up

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Welcome to Wednesday. Today our very own Ryan Reynolds took to the Cannes Lions stage to share his simple formula for great creative work.

In this edition: 

  1. Checking in with Karen Howe
  2. Google amps up accessibility offering
  3. Why NFTs are hot
  4. Canada keeps scoring
  5. Why creatives need to question everything
  6. Where’s the opportunity for advertisers
  7. Why the potential for NFTs is massive for brands

Checking in with Karen Howe

Canada commanded the Palais today in the form of Ryan Reynolds. An avowed lover of advertising, he is now both client and agency. Ryan’s meteoric rise to advertising icon is fuelled by a decidedly simple formula: humour + speed. He thinks too much time, red tape and big budgets are often the enemy of great work. He values speed above all to grab the coattails of a cultural moment. His credo? To create “remember me” ads you need to embrace the notion that sometimes imperfection is perfection, and just get it out there.

The pavilion’s presence around Cannes this year is revealing. The roster now includes Meta, Google, Amazon, TikTok, Reddit, and Pinterest. It is no longer dominated by just the media players, social is flexing its muscles. But as well, there are many unknowns present. There is a feeling of the establishment of a new order. 

Climate anxiety is a thread woven throughout the shortlists this year. Brand activism is pushing the agenda, and one of the most memorable examples was Corona’s Plastic Fishing Tournament. We dump 14 million tons of plastic in the sea. This activation paid fishermen to capture plastic and haul it out of the ocean. The hope is that the fish will someday return. 

– Karen Howe is the creative director and founder of The Township Group

All In

Google announces an expanded accessibility kit at Cannes as part of its broader inclusive marketing efforts. Read more here.

Why NFTs are hot with brands

Gary Vaynerchuk and Paris Hilton talk about the big opportunities and challenges facing the NFT space. Read more here.

More Gold Lions for Canada

Strategy reports that Ogilvy’s Toronto and London offices earned a Gold Creative Effectiveness Lion for “Courage Is Beautiful,” a Dove campaign that recognized what health care workers went through in the early days of the pandemic. FCB Canada also took home a Gold Lion in Creative Effectiveness for the Canadian Down Syndrome Society’s “Project Understood,” which won last year for working with Google to make voice-activated technology to be more inclusive of people with Down syndrome and their speech patterns. 

Question everything

The CMO of Hyundai Motor America Angela Zepeda and VP Comms at Disney Tori Fernandes discuss how questioning everything is the very soul of creativity and the quintessential essence behind your greatest breakthroughs. Keep reading.

B2B brands are the untapped market for creatives

According to Ryan Roslansky, CEO of LinkedIn, even in our current financial markets, the uncertainty that we have today, ServiceNow, Salesforce, Block and Nvidia have a market cap that’s greater than Nike, Coca-Cola, Adidas and GM combined have a market cap that’s greater than Nike, Coca-Cola, Adidas and GM combined. For the advertising industry, these new B2B categories and businesses like them, that’s where the growth is going to come from. Out of the 10 most successful tech IPOs last year, all but one was a pure B2B play. These companies have no idea that they need you yet. These companies are growing fast, they’re spending much more money on advertising, and they know that they’ll need to stand out in an incredibly competitive market. There’s huge opportunity to help them build their brands.

Why major brands are spending millions on NFTs

For years, marketers have struggled to determine the actual impact of ads on consumer reach and engagement. But the verified transactional nature of NFTs could serve as an antidote. Read Sonia Carreno’s guest column here. 

Cannes Lions Festival 2022 - The Moment Is Now

Guest post: Why major brands are spending millions on NFTs

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For years, marketers have struggled to determine the actual impact of ads on consumer reach and engagement. But the verified transactional nature of NFTs could serve as an antidote.

 

Fundamentally, we buy into brands because we feel that they represent our aspirations and values. The conversation at Cannes Lion this week about NFTs comes at a time when most of our personal identities are communicated through online channels. We express ourselves through words and images in the communities that matter to us via social channels both professionally and socially.

When it comes to purchases, the internet created an entire movement of unboxing and ratings and reviews that often establish some form of influencer status on the individual sharing their experience. By contrast, NFTs stand on their own and have the potential to satiate the need for us to express our status more directly within our networks.

Gary Vaynerchuck, a staunch evangelist of the NFT revolution, is not a big fan of traditional media. In his view, gross rating points (GRPs) and impressions represent an outdated and opaque method of advertising. The verified transactional nature of NFTs is why he believes so strongly that they can serve as the antidote to the challenges marketers have faced in determining their actual impact on consumer reach and engagement. When a brand produces a distributed form of ownership to the consumer, there is hard evidence of buy-in and true amplification of the brand.

While in-app purchasing is not a new concept (think Farmville), the possibilities of a broader, cross-channel NFT economy are enormous. One example that brought this to light was the idea that a brand could partner with well-known or up-and-coming creators to develop unique NFTs that align to their brand. They could then do something as simple as adding a unique NFT to a customer receipt as an extension of their mark. A luxury brand for example, would have endless possibilities to create collectibles that give tangible value to the customer while creating a knock-on advertising campaign through its loyal and verified customer base.

Reflecting on the notion that brands are a form of communication, NFTs appear to have the makings of a whole new language. Marshal McLuhan would be fascinated to see this evolution take place as the medium here, has most definitely become the message.

 

Sonia Carreno is the president of The Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada, the only trade association dedicated to the responsible growth of the digital advertising industry in Canada. With a career spanning almost 25 years, Sonia is a true digital veteran who has deep industry experience covering virtually every angle of the digital marketing sector.

Cannes Lions Festival 2022 - The Moment Is Now

Why creatives need to question everything

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The mantra ‘question everything’ is perhaps the very soul of creativity, and the quintessential essence behind your greatest breakthroughs

 

In this backstage chat, the CMO of Hyundai Motor America Angela Zepeda, and VP Comms at Disney Tori Fernandes discuss how embodying this mindset led to an unprecedented collaboration, delivering unrivaled results that continue to drive Hyundai from challenger brand to industry leader.

What message do you want the audience to act on?

Tori Fernandes: Be bold, take risks, and really reimagine your ideas and projects before they get off the blocks.

What should the ad industry worry about?

Angela Zepeda: There’s a lot of disruption happening again, and brands need to think about where they should put most of their efforts. There’s incredible technology at play and platforms coming out but at the end of the day it’s how you can connect with your customers in an authentic way with the most storytelling. So sometimes it’s more about editing and making decisions of where to be other than being everywhere. I think that’s one of the things about the industry that makes it very complex. It’s a challenge more than a thing to worry about but it’s important for brands to figure it out.

How do you measure the impact of questioning everything on Hyundai’s performance?

Angela: We have a lot of measurement that we look at against everything, but on this campaign we wanted to see demand metrics rise. So that was things like search, visits to website, how people were shopping for our car. Those are high action types of metrics that show that people are interested in the car. But we also look at longer-term metrics like our brand metrics.

There was low on Hyundai Tucson when we started the campaign. We wanted to see awareness grow and the opinion of the car get bigger and those were things we looked at over time.

Earlier this year, Tori tweeted: “Lies have speed but truth has endurance.” How do you base truth in how you talk to Disney’s customers?

Tori: The key in speaking truth is being authentic. Making sure you come from a place of vulnerability. People can see through talking points and lies. Trust your brand’s voice. Trust the trust consumers have in your company. Disney has a lot of brand equity, so our die-hard fans know when we’re not being truthful to them.

What is the biggest challenge to creativity in the next couple of years?

Angela: The biggest challenge is doing breakthrough work and keeping up with the volume that we all need to produce. The quality may suffer with the quantity because need to be always producing. We need to get that right.

What is your definition of creativity?

Tori: Being creative is being yourself, being bold, taking risks, and being vulnerable. Part of my job is asking a lot of questions. People are afraid to ask questions, but I will not let you leave my office until I really understand It. It’s about getting to know things a bit more and not being afraid to ask those tough questions. I think that will take you to the next side of creativity.


As the official Canadian representative of Cannes Lions, the world’s most prestigious and coveted advertising and marketing awards, The Globe and Mail will provide insights, ideas, and takeaways from panels and keynotes over the next five days.

Follow Globe Media Group on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter to stay in the know.

Cannes Lions Festival 2022 - The Moment Is Now

What the NFT revolution means for brands

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Gary Vaynerchuk and Paris Hilton talk about the big opportunities and challenges facing the NFT space.

 

NFTs exploded into popular culture in 2020. And, just like the internet in the early 2000s, brands and consumers alike are figuring out how to incorporate them into their world. In a behind-the-scenes chat at Cannes Lion, two established brands and NFT creators – Gary Vaynerchuk and Paris Hilton – discuss unlocking the opportunities in the NFT space, the connections they create with their respective communities, and what this means for brands and the future of creativity going forward.

What message do you want the audience to hear and act on from your talk?

Paris: How this is going to revolutionize the entertainment industry and disrupt so many verticals and businesses and what an exciting space it is to be in. And jump in.

What is the one thing the industry should worry about right now?

Gary: The industry needs to worry about relevance. The ad industry is very good at trying to get reach by spending tons of media on a piece of content that nobody cares about. To me the biggest concern by far is winning on relevance. I do think NFTs are an opportunity for relevance.

Why are NFTs not just a fad?

Paris: NFTs are here to stay. I’ve always loved art and digital art is even cooler. I have all these screens in my house and the art is 3-D, they move, they have music. They’ve beautiful. And not just the art, but the utilities people are attaching to them for real-life experiences and being able to turn them in for physical items. Like the drop I just did for RTFKT and Nike where we designed these Air Force Ones and people can get the physical shoes and that’s something I was really excited about.

I’ve always been such a collector. I used to love collecting Pogs, Garbage Pail Kids cards and Barbies. In the metaverse It’s so fun to go shopping. It’s this whole other word with all these fantastical creations by all these amazing creators.

What impact is celebrity culture having on NFTs?

Gary: Awareness. Anyone with large audiences has the potential to story tell and bring awareness to new things. Anytime anything has happened in the universe there’s always been individuals who brought awareness to them. Obviously, celebrity has evolved from being a pilot or astronaut to being a TikToker but it’s always been the same game. Which human carries a lot of attention. The Beatles wear their hair long, so everyone wears their hair long.

What’s your definition of creativity?

Paris: I feel I’m inspired by everything and you can be creative in any medium you want to be, whether it’s in your business or art or designing clothes or the way you present yourself to the world. With web3 and the meta verses you can be creative in ways that aren’t even possible in the physical world.

What’s the biggest challenge for the NFT marketplace in the next couple of years?

Gary: Time. It’s just early and people lack patience. Social media didn’t have the same pressure 20 years ago. Too much greed. There was a lot of bad behaviour, there was a lot of scamming people just trying to make a quick buck and not really being in it for anything but money and whenever you’re into anything just for money it’s going to be a little more soulless. I think the challenge of time and getting the stink off the bad behaviour of the gold rush stand out.

Earlier in the year Paris said, “When I first came into the industry, I was unfairly treated by the media and underestimated. And now, ever since I’ve used my voice to turn my paint into purpose, I feel so free.” How has embracing NFTs enabled you to reposition yourself in the industry?

Paris: It was really taking the power back in my story. Growing up in this industry for two decades, the media treated us so cruelly and it was difficult to go through. Times have changed and I’ve been using my platform to raise awareness. We’ve changed laws in seven states so that children won’t abused. I’m proud that I can use my voice and the power of NFTs to raise money for causes in that area.


As the official Canadian representative of Cannes Lions, the world’s most prestigious and coveted advertising and marketing awards, The Globe and Mail will provide insights, ideas, and takeaways from panels and keynotes over the next five days.

Follow Globe Media Group on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter to stay in the know.

Cannes Lions Lumiere Sessions - Day 2

The shift to a more sustainable Cannes Lions festival

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Brands are tapping into creativity to make sustainable initiatives more inventive, cost-effective, and impactful. We’ve seen creativity provide alternatives to plastic, offer low-cost energy to rural communities and reignite the repair, refurbish and restore movement. Yet advertisements continue to play a damaging role when it comes to overconsumption and the environmental impacts of consumerism.

We spoke to Karen Howe who’s attending the Cannes Lions festival to find out some of the ways brands are helping shift consumer habits and attitudes towards environmental issues.

Sustainability is one of the big themes of this year’s Cannes Lions festival and is now on a par with storytelling as the leading strategy for the most effective creative work. How is the festival demonstrating its commitment to social impact this year?

Cannes is addressing sustainability on a number of fronts. Many campaigns being recognized are championing sustainability; such as Puma’s Re: Suede work to create shoe afterlife vs. landfill fodder. Corona’s ‘Plastic Fishing Tournament’ pays fishermen to pull plastic from the oceans. Whirlpool’s ‘Plasticoff’ showcases appliance packaging that dissolves in water instead of filling the oceans. ‘Sink this Island’ is centered on retaining water to reverse the appearance of an island in the middle of depleting reservoir. 

From a content standpoint, there is a whole stream of sessions that focus on climate issues and the increasing demand for brand accountability. 

And it’s deeper that. As I look around the Palais, it is now plastic-free. Finally. There are water stations to refill containers. Food is served in sustainable containers with bamboo implements instead of one-use plastic cutlery. Is there more to be done? Yes. But it’s heading in the right direction.

Advertisements are among the quickest ways for brands to reach consumers. What happens when they start pushing us to purchase things we don’t need?

Ah the uneasy tension I live with as an Ad Woman. Am I making the world buy tons of stuff they don’t really need. It’s the seesaw of need versus want. People need to eat, to wash their clothes, no argument, it’s Maslow’s fundamentals. But when we get to expression of self (fashion is a good example) I realize we have shifted into the heartland of consumerism. Not an easy answer to that question.

 

As the official Canadian representative of Cannes Lions, the world’s most prestigious and coveted advertising and marketing awards, The Globe and Mail will provide insights, ideas, and takeaways from panels and keynotes over the next five days.

Follow Globe Media Group on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter to stay in the know.

Cannes Lions Lumiere Sessions - Day 2

Cannes Lions: Day 2 Wrap-Up

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Tuesday is here and the focus at Cannes Lions is on talent and tech. This week, The Globe and Mail is bringing you the insights and ideas you won’t want to miss. Be sure to follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.

In this edition:

  1. On-the-ground intel from Karen Howe
  2. A promising future for ad talent
  3. Canadians clean up
  4. Don’t forget the fans
  5. Behind ‘Dream Crazy’
  6. Me too five years later

What’s hot with Karen Howe

Emerging themes of Cannes on day two include exploring what Web3, the Metaverse and NFTs mean for brands. Gary Vaynerchuk of VaynerX, Paris Hilton and Swan Sit shared insights on how the Blockchain world will transcend the “vanity metrics of reach and GRPs” of TV commercials.

Hacking in all forms is flourishing, whether it’s hackvertising (Burger King’s Whopper + McFries) or hacktivism by Hackmarket, which encourages refurbishing phones over buying new ones. They hacked iStores when buyers were at the point of purchase.

Activations leapfrog passivity by leveraging all senses. They also offer the power of shared community experience. This year’s shortlist was rich with smart activations.

The Elections Edition was a brilliant use of newspapers that never got printed. When the Lebanese leader threatened election delay over a lack of paper and ink for ballots, An-Nahar Newspaper ceased printing for one day and donated the ink and paper to produce the needed election ballots.

2022 is the most inclusive Cannes ever. Beyond diversity in speakers, content, and attendees, the large sessions were simultaneously signed.

Creativity fuels growth. Great creative feels personal, conveys performance, and builds partnerships. It becomes a force for growth and societal good according to P&G CMO Marc Pritchard. His track record of awarded work on big tough brands like Tide, Gain and Pamper prove his point.

Quote of the Day: “History is pattern recognition,” Gary Vaynerchuk, “NFTs today are the Twitter and social media of yesterday – they are underestimated.” 

-Karen Howe is the creative director and founder of The Township Group

Canada scores again at Cannes

BBDO Canada scored a Gold Lion in Design for the Canadian Paralympic Committee. The “Para Expansion Pack” campaign was a set of 3-D printing instructions for 11 Lego pieces that would add representation for different disabilities, as well as for nine Paralympic sports, reports Strategy. Keep reading here.

The promise of a future

In a standing-room-only address, LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky shared insights on talent trends in the global advertising industry based on exclusive LinkedIn and Cannes Lions data. For the full article, click here.

Don’t forget the fans

In a chat between McDonald’s global CMO Morgan Flatley and Wieden+Kennedy’s global CEO Neal Arthur spoke about how forgetting the haters and listening to fans unlocked a transformation for the brand. Read the full story here.

Cannes finally goes plastic-free

Find out how the festival is demonstrating its commitment to social impact this year here.

The story behind ‘Dream Crazy’

In a much talked about session, Nike’s global creative director revealed the real story behind ‘Dream Crazy.’ Keep reading here.

Five years later

In this behind-the-scenes talk, Tarana Burke, activist, author and founder of the ‘me too.’ Movement and Susan Credle, global chair & global chief creative officer of FCB discuss the movement’s beginnings, the challenges over the last five years, the future of ‘me too’ and how brands can contribute in a meaningful way to the issue of social justice. More here.

Cannes Lions Lumiere Sessions - Day 2

Guest post: A promising future for advertising talent

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Motivating and inspiring, the next generation of talent will be critical for the future of the ad industry, says LinkedIn CEO.

 

Day two kicked off with a session on the talent shortage led by Ryan Roslansky, CEO of LinkedIn. Based on the standing-room-only audience, it’s a topic on everyone’s mind.

Roslansky started the discussion by sharing insights from LinkedIn combined with the Cannes-Lions data set, about the movement in the sector over the past five years. His reporting showed that while baby boomers, millennials, and Gen X-ers have followed a similar pattern in job changes, Gen Z were by far the biggest movers during and post-pandemic. This generation, he explained, believes it’s not only OK to move around frequently, but that it is expected. Many also take side gigs along the way. Motivating and inspiring this generation is critical for the future of the industry, Roslansky urged.

Looking at the skills profile that makes up the industry’s bench strength, LinkedIn reports that there has been a 47 percent leap in the share of hard tech skills in the ad industry over five years, and when overlaying the Cannes Lions-specific data set, there’s a whopping 67 percent increase of those same tech skills in-field. By contrast, core creative skills have contracted by 17 percent overall and with the Cannes-Lions analysis added, we see a surprising 32 percent decline in those creative skills. The findings imply that the skill sets required in the ad industry are being sought out by other sectors.

Harkening back to the early days of the iPod, Roslansky reminded the audience that it took a compelling promise from a big brand for digital audio to be adopted at scale. While earlier brands had tried and failed to show the value of digital music files that could be stored on a technical device, Apple’s promise of “holding 1,000 songs in your pocket” made the offering irresistible. Tying it back to the talent issue, he urged the industry to develop promise-making opportunities to inspire elusive Gen Z talent.

Today, most of the advertising industry is focused on consumer-directed advertising. It’s where the demand has been, historically. Roslansky believes that the next generation of businesses that will deliver 10-times growth will look very different from the brand work being done today.

Fast-growing tech companies that are being formed at the intersection of cloud computing, data analytics, and machine learning are emerging to create an entirely new client set. In other words, we’re seeing a surge in demand for B2B marketing and the demand for promise-making skills found in the advertising sector are critical to the growth of these new businesses.

Later discussions during the day twinkled with startup energy. From crafting ‘metaversal’ presences to unlocking new blockchain tech, the opportunities emerging in our sector are boundless. As thought leaders hit the stage to share their visions in language that was both appealing and urgently directed towards Gen Z, the industry holds a lot of promise – but in today’s volatile job market, only for those who can communicate it effectively.

 

Sonia Carreno is the president of The Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada, the only trade association dedicated to the responsible growth of the digital advertising industry in Canada. With a career spanning almost 25 years, Sonia is a true digital veteran who has deep industry experience covering virtually every angle of the digital marketing sector.

Cannes Lions Lumiere Sessions - Day 1

What ‘Me Too’ means in 2022

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In 2006, Tarana Burke wrote down the words “Me Too” in her journal. Those words captured the movement she was destined to create: Empowerment through empathy among women of colour who have been sexually abused. In 2017, Tarana woke up to a viral uprising. In less than 24 hours, over 12 million people had responded to a social post declaring #metoo. 

 

In this behind-the-scenes chat, Tarana Burke, activist, author, and founder of the ‘me too’ movement, and Susan Credle, global chair & global chief creative officer of FCB discuss the movement’s beginnings, the challenges over the last five years, the future of ‘me too’, and how brands can contribute in a meaningful way to the issue of social justice.

What ‘Me Too’ means in 2022

What message do you want the audience to hear and act on from your talk?

Tarana Burke: We want marketers and brands take action on reshaping the narrative on MeToo. We want people to tell a different, bigger and more accurate story. We want people to reimagine safety and think about this as a movement that’s about healing and action to end sexual violence.

 What’s one thing the industry should really worry about now?

Susan Credle: The industry should worry about the value of creativity. We talk about the importance of storytelling and what creativity can in a moment and what it can do do over the long term. That’s beautiful and nobody argues. But brands don’t want to pay for it. And sadly, if we don’t value it from an economic standpoint we will not be able to afford the talent that will tell the best stories in our industry. Understanding the value of great creative is of the utmost importance.

What is the biggest challenge facing the MeToo movement in the next two years?

Tarana: We’re coming up on the fifth anniversary of the hashtag going viral. When you have major anniversaries, there’s usually a major slump in interest. We’re challenged with changing the narrative so people know this is a proactive movement and should be involved in and making them understand that there will be a lot more cases, scandals but that’s not the heart of the movement.

What are the conditions for the prevailing issues to become a movement?

Credle: When something affects us all. Even if you weren’t a survivor or a victim, you’re going to have a survivor or victim in your life. When you can find meaning in an issue that affects more than a small amount of people.

In 2018, Tarana said: I stay grounded in my joy as opposed to my trauma and that is how I stay on my healing journey. What role can joy play in continuing the growth of the ‘me too’ movement?

Tarana: Joy is at the centre of our movement because inherently in healing there is joy. One of the elements of your healing journey in trying to claim your joy. We see survivors depicted in movies and in TV shows. It’s always this sad story or the woman is so angry and wants revenge and we don’t see accurate depictions. There’s a lot of joy in survival because there has to be. It’s a big part in how we heal and take action.

 

As the official Canadian representative of Cannes Lions, the world’s most prestigious and coveted advertising and marketing awards, The Globe and Mail will provide insights, ideas, and takeaways from panels and keynotes over the next five days.

Follow Globe Media Group on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter to stay in the know.

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