Day 3 Recap for #CannesLions #OgilvyCannes

1. Day3
2015
Cannes
Lions
R E C A P
B Y J E R E MY K AT Z ,
W O R L D W I D E E D I TO R I A L D I R E C TO R ,
O G I LV Y & M AT H E R

2. 2015
Cannes
Lions
Day3
R E C A P
1 LuckyTHE STARS HAVE STARTED to come out at Cannes. A surprisingly
sedate Marilyn Manson mumbled his way through a
presentation that involved neither simulated sex nor prosthetic
breasts. A surprisingly passionate Viola Davis riveted her
audience with the kind of authentic self-assurance that never
fails to connect. A surprisingly scatterbrained Tim Berners-
Lee completely confused everybody. A surprisingly humble
Pharrell gave all the credit to his collaborators. A surprisingly
thoughtful Jamie Oliver advocated for the fundamental
right that children have to learn about food and nutrition.
What will Kim Kardashian, Grace Helbig, Marialla Frostrup,
and Julia Louis-Dreyfus surprise us with tomorrow?

3. 2015
Cannes
Lions
Day3
R E C A P
2 BIGDealTHE DEALS HAVE STARTED TO FLOW,TOO. WPP, Snapchat, and
Daily Mail lured a passel of journalists out to the Daily
Mail’s (spectacular) yacht this morning to announce
the creation of Truffle Pig. That’s the ~vivid~ name
for a new content marketing agency that combines the
reach of Snapchat, the content prowess of the Daily
Mail and the marketing know-how of WPP. Also:
vertical video, which is much more consequential
than it sounds, given that it is the ideal orientation for
mobile phones. Unilever and Vice Media also teamed
up today on a multi-year deal supporting the launch
of Vice’s new female-focused channel, Broadly.

4. 2015
Cannes
Lions
Day3
R E C A P
3SITTINGONa FenceGOOGLE PUT THEIR MISSION ON DISPLAY TODAY. “Don’t be evil,” is easy to say,
but it’s much harder to live out in the real world. Most of us believe,
reflexively, that the internet is and must remain an unrestricted
environment. Of course, from the outset, YouTube—where most of the knotty
questions of restriction emerge—was designed to restrict only nudity and
porn. Then things got messy. What about “Betty”? She’s a little old lady who
produced an excellent DIY euthanasia movie. YouTube pulled that down,
but not because of the ethics of that. Rather, they were worried kids would
kill themselves. And the famous film of Neda Agha-Soltan’s murder caused
controversy. Despite being horrific to view, the world has the right to bear
witness. It stays up. ISIS, on the other hand, filmed full executions which
YouTube pulled down immediately, saying that they refuse to be a distribution
channel for “brutally violent propaganda.” As Google’s representatives
said, “Knowledge is powerful, but it’s how we use it that defines us.”

5. 2015
Cannes
Lions
Day3
R E C A P
4Crawling BACKTOYOUTED BROUGHT THREE TALKS to Cannes this year—actress Maria Bello, poet
Rives, and, most notably, swimmer Diana Nyad. Nyad certainly
inspired the crowd and received a heart-felt standing ovation for her
efforts. She spoke of her repeated attempts to swim from Cuba to the Florida
Keys—a distance of 110 miles—and of her determination never to be the timid
person on sidelines always asking what if. Even though she was transporting,
particularly when she showed us how she kept time in the water by singing Joni
Mitchell, I couldn’t escape a sense of unease. Like all world-class athletes, Nyad
is driven to be the best, and that’s always a narcissistic quest. Narcissism and
great success (and TED talks) often go hand-in-hand, but I’m not sure that the
inspiration-from-personal-narrative circuit is as culturally nourishing as we
seem to believe. To this Gen Xer, it feels like a hallmark both of the generation
that has hammered us from above and the one that’s smashing us from below.