What Are We Rewarding?

Every June, the high priests of creativity descend on Cannes
to baptize consumerism in gold.

We wear the right linen.
Whisper the right buzzwords.
Applaud campaigns that make the world feel better
—while keeping the system exactly as it is.

But maybe the question isn’t what wins.
Maybe it’s why we’re still awarding anything that worships the market above all.

Capitalism Makes a Poor Muse

We’ve mistaken reach for relevance.
Profit for purpose.
Cleverness for conscience.

Advertising was never neutral—
But now we award its best lies,
its cleanest distractions,
its highest-performing manipulations.

If the work doesn’t question the system—
It upholds it.

And we celebrate that?
We dress it in titanium?

Glass is the Only Lion That Breaks the Spell

The Glass Lion doesn’t care about ROI.
It asks: Who was empowered?
What inequality was challenged?
Did this leave behind justice—not just impressions?

And here’s what’s radical:

• The work doesn’t have to sell.
• It has to liberate.
• It has to leave behind proof of dignity restored.

That’s not capitalism.
That’s creative resistance, its the only award that really matters in a post pandemic world full of wars, volatility, and injustice! This one should be the one you always aim for as an agency!

Everything Else Is Complicity in Couture

Let’s tell the truth:

Most Cannes Lions go to work that pleases the system.
They flatter the world as it is.
They use rebellion as branding—but stay loyal to power.

We give Gold to campaigns that simulate empathy
without ever shifting structures, without even changing culture, without even changing the world better.

They don’t challenge capitalism.
They accessorize it.

Time to Flip the Script

What if Cannes wasn’t built around categories that serve the market—
but around ones that dismantle its harm?

What if we would expand the notion of Glass into every category—not as a side dish, but the main course.

Because a Lion that doesn’t protect the people?

It’s just a logo with teeth.

An Award Show or an Autopsy?

Cannes faces a choice.

It can continue to be an arena for marketing’s most exquisite distractions—
or it can become a stage for work that actually moves us forward.

But that means one thing:

Decenter capitalism.
Center impact.
Make awards serve justice, not just sales.

Not all creativity deserves applause.
Not all lions deserve gold.

Until every award is held to the standard of the Glass,
we’re just clapping for the architects of decline of our future!

If your creativity feeds the system and not the people—
you don’t deserve a Lion.