Hollywood glitterati and a no-show by Samsung

By Hari Krishnan and Dilshara Jayamanna reporting from 

the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity

The third day of the Lions kicked off with some high-energy big screen action as advertising legend John Hegarty, Hollywood producers Lawrence Bender & Steve Golin& UNICEF’s Chief of public advocacy Claudia joined UK film critic Jason Solomons to discuss ‘The power of cinema to drive cultural change’.

Bender (producer of movies like Pulp Fiction and An Inconvenient Truth) spoke of how filmmakers are involved in storytelling and of how sometimes the audience doesn’t know or care about those stories until they see them unfold through the director’s vision. “It’s all about how you get them to care,” he said.

Steve Golin fresh from the global success of his movies Spotlight and The Revenant spoke about cinema’s ability to tap into uncomfortable issues and spark further conversation and action. He referenced his Best Picture winning movie Spotlight in which the very un-commercial subject of paedophile priests molesting children and the outstanding investigative journalism that exposed it were brought to millions of moviegoers around the world and presented as a gripping story that created conversations about an important subject that many seem to want to sweep under the carpet.

Claudia Gonzalez thanked the filmmakers and John Hegarty’s advertising work for the UN Global Goals campaign as she revealed how movies like Bender’s An Inconvenient Truth and Hegarty’s ad campaign ‘We have a plan’ have helped raise awareness and funding for UNICEF projects around the world. She then screened the world premiere of the new Global Goals ad campaign; a catchy Spice Girls inspired commercial that delivers a powerful message on gender inequality.

Gender inequality and how the advertising world can help put an end to it by not playing a part in the propagation of the notion that women are unequal to men was the topic of the next session conducted by Madonna Badger of Badger and Winters. 

She spoke honestly about her own career in advertising where she spent many years working on campaigns that objectified women and how she now leads a global effort to prevent the very same from happening. 

She shared a series of very powerful campaigns created by her agency that makes the viewer take a second and closer look at just how casually women are objectified in advertising and how this objectification leads to our children growing up with a warped sense of gender equality. 

When she screened her latest campaign that urged viewers to stand up against the objectification of women the entire Lumiere theatre stood in support of her and her very important effort. Next came the hotly anticipated session on virtual reality conducted by Marc Mathieu CMO Samsung Electronics America. With the medium in its infancy everyone was eager to hear what the makers of Gear VR had to say on the topic of content creation for virtual reality. The fact that the seminar was billed as a carefully orchestrated performance, not a presentation and that attendees would be able to experience the beauty and wonder of VR only served to heighten anticipation. What followed though was quite underwhelming. The session started off with an apology that the attendees would not be able to truly experience the wonder of VR content since it was not possible to give everyone present a VR headset. 

Mathieu then talked about thinking of virtual reality beyond a storytelling platform and as an operating system and to help illustrate his point he invited guests Eddie Moretti of CCO of Vice, Chris Milk CEO of Within (both highly acclaimed virtual reality content creators). They both spoke about the power and the freedom of going beyond conventional film making’s ‘frame’ and of how addictive and liberating it was. 

Facebook’s Andrew Keller and Oculus Story Studio’s Yelena Rachitsky then joined Mathieu on stage to share some virtual reality experiences with the audience but without the requisite equipment no one was able to fully experience and appreciate the depth of what the speakers were sharing. 

Indeed the 2016 Cannes Lions has plenty of virtual reality experiences scattered across its exhibition halls where attendees are able to experience virtual environments and games with both the Samsung Gear VR and the HTC Vive virtual reality headsets.

The highlight of the day was to follow when Joanna Coles Editor in chief of Cosmopolitan magazine spoke to Brian Chesky, founder of AirBNBwho enthralled the audience with his trials, tribulations, hilarious anecdotes, life lessons and more importantly, with his passion and tenacity. Did you know that they started off selling Breakfast Cereals out of sheer necessity? 

AirBNB was seen as cheap rooms and scorned at by the travel industry but they were busy creating a massive community. “All travellers put together spend more money than all of us spend on oil. Travellers seek experiences. Today there are more travellers than tourists. Proof of that is that 20% of AirBNB bookings are for 30 days or longer. We are building communities and travel experiences. The world is getting smaller and anyone who puts up a wall between countries and cultures is going to be on the wrong side of history,” said Brian Chesky passionately.

(Hari Krishnan is Chief Executive Officer, MullenLowe Sri Lanka and Dilshara Jayamanna is Senior Vice President/Executive Creative Director, MullenLowe Sri Lanka)