How can it be the last day? Although this week has been exhausting, it has flown by. We grabbed croissants and a cappuccino in JLP before heading into Cannes one last time. The talks we were most interested in weren't for a little later so we did a little shopping before heading over to the Palais. I watched the very end of a talk before heading to Samsung for lunch. I'm mad I didn't know about this earlier in the week because evidently they had this amazing setup on the rooftop courtyard of a building all week. It was a lovely set up. We had some light snacks (and a plentiful serving of a macarons) and hated with some Swedish people at our table. I'm definitely going to miss having casual conversation with some many people from interesting places.
Afterwards, we headed into Debussey for three back to back speeches. The first was called The Disruptive Power of Soft Power about the Columbian guerrilla crisis. I felt bad because I know they talk was very inspirational in terms of its social and national implications, and I could tell the speaker and some of the audience were very moved by his story about freeing guerrilla warriors from their imprisonment in the jungle, but I just struggled to understand the creativity side of the presentation. It seemed much more social and political to me. The campaign ideas were interesting, but i felt the execution was poor and somewhat unprofessional looking. I think I'm definitely starting to develop a certain advertisement aesthetic that I'm found of.
The next talk was amazing. It was called Who Needs Creative Directors Anyway? Two creatives from Forsman & Bodenfors in Sweden discussed their hierarchy-free office structure and how it fueled creativity, responsibility, and trust within their company. The argued that this model made it easier for people to focus on the work itself and the task at hand rather than being afraid of what their superior might think about it. It sounds like an amazing and fun work environment. They showed several commercials (I'm a sucker for videos during speeches) and they were all amazing. It was very cool to see a relatively small agency creating such bug, meaningful, award-winning work.
The last talk of the festival was with Blake Mycoskie the founder of Toms shoes. He was awesome. It was so inspiring to hear about his amazing entrepreneur success story -- especially because it was both lucrative AND has helped literally millions of people. Its so amazing to hear about all the good you can do with a good idea and a lot of hard work. He talked about how spending money on social causes is actually a good business strategy because it does wonders for your brand loyalty. He, along with others this week, have opened my eyes to the joy that using your creativity to help others can bring. I'd never really thought about that side of the business before but I definitely do now. Afterwards, we got a picture with him and I tweeted it and he favorited it! And he's verified and y'all know how I feel about that haha.
Waiting in line for the award show we met an interesting man from India who had been to the festival 15 times and was serving as a juror. He seemed very interested in us and told me to come work in India and gave me his card. I probably could't see myself moving to India but hey you never know where connections might lead you. The award show was super long but the commercials were incredible. My favorites were probably the AT&T Close to Home, the Netflix House of Hards, every single Under Amour ad, Hennesy the Picards, the Old Spice ads, and of course the Adidas Your Future is Not Mine. I'm especially drawn to beautiful cinematography and craft, superior storytelling, and a clear but clever message. I love ads that make me feel a distinct emotion. It was a good way to end such an incredible week.
Afterwards we went to a somewhat stressful dinner (the language barrier is very real) then took an amusing Uber ride home to JLP to finish up our assignments so that we can go to St. Tropez tomorrow.
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