Cannes Lions Thursday: President Clinton Speaks, Twitter Dies
The big news out of Cannes Lions today is that Twitter went down right before President Clinton delivered his speech. It returned and then went down again. As of this writing, it's still down. But that's not really news. Or it really should overshadow the other items of importance that occurred in Cannes today.
Eager to hear the former President speak, thousands lined up on the red carpet which stretches most the way down Le Croisette. Throughout the day, in advance of the speech, there were Clinton sightings in and around Cannes.
Once introduced by PJ Pereira, Clinton, who spoke on the topic of How Advertising Can Help Build a Better World, said, "we live in the most inter-dependent era in human history" and, focusing a bit on particle physics and string theory, he even went so far as to say that in our lifetimes, "you might live in a time that discovers there is another dimension beyond time, space and distance." Heady stuff.
Focusing on this dimension for a minute, Clinton noted there are more private citizens doing volunteer work for public good than ever before. That said, he noted "global inequality is our biggest barrier to progress." But he did add that advertising's existence is based on that inequality and that it fuels growth and desire.
Though he said "our common humanity matters more than our differences," Clinton noted "all of us are 95.5 percent the same yet everyone spends 99.5 percent of the time emphasizing the 0.5 percent difference." On an up note, he added, "immigration not only makes life more interesting, it is essential to prosperity." Differences fuel progress.
Clinton touched on a number of topics including global warming, gender equality and personal empowerment. Upliftingly, he did say the advertising industry is the world's most creative asset.
While Clinton's appearance in Cannes is certainly notable, it must be noted a few other things did actually occur.
- Twelve year old wunderkind developer (who was in a seminar earlier in the week) was interviewed by Adobe.
- There was a little scandal over "block voting" and the best work not getting its just rewards.
- In a Viacom seminar with Selena Gomez, the Disney star and singer spoke to the Millennial generation saying, "My generation feels part of something when we are part of the digital world." It's a sense of feeling "connected to something bigger." She spoke to the joy of digital devices that allow her to share memories quickly and easily with loved ones.
- Apparently advertising has a nine year cycle. Bob Greenberg explained in a workshop.
- BBDO creatives discussed "breakthrough" creative sharing three different examples with delagates.
- Saatchi and Saatchi hosted its annual New Director's Showcase with 17 films, several of which were amazing and some, hard to take.
