Info

Posts tagged creativity

Choose another tag?

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.

Why Weak Thinking Is Starving Creativity

A strange thing is happening in adland.

Budgets are holding. Tools are multiplying. Content is everywhere.
And yet—campaigns are feeling flatter, safer, forgettable.
We’re showing up more. But saying less.

According to Lions’ State of Creativity 2025 report, we now know why:

51% of brands say their insights are too weak to fuel bold creativity.

The very oxygen of original work—insight—is running low.

Creativity Isn’t Dead. It’s Malnourished.

The study surveyed 1,000 marketers and creatives globally.
Only 13% said they were “very good” at developing high-quality insights.
And over half admitted their strategic thinking wasn’t strong enough to support brave ideas.

This isn’t about copy or color palettes.
It’s about the starting point—the thinking beneath the campaign.

When that’s soft, everything collapses.
We don’t create culture. We decorate it.

The Great Disconnect

Here’s where it gets messier.

26% of brands believe they’re good at generating insights.
Only 10% of agencies agree.

That’s not a disagreement. That’s a misalignment.
And it shows up in the work: campaigns with zero tension, zero edge, and zero memory.

It’s a quiet crisis—because no one gets fired for playing it safe.
But no one gets remembered for it, either.

Why This Is Happening

The report points to three key reasons:

  1. No one agrees on what a “good insight” actually is.
    29% of agencies said the core problem is not knowing how to define it.
  2. Insight development isn’t prioritized.
    It’s not funded. It’s not briefed. It’s not protected.
    (But production timelines? Always urgent.)
  3. Brands struggle to react to culture in real time.
    57% said they can’t respond fast enough to cultural moments.
    Insight, by the time it surfaces, is already stale.

As one respondent put it:

“Capturing cultural moments requires real-time data and courage. But fear of failure gets in the way.”

What Insight Isn’t

  • It’s not a stat.
  • Not a demographic.
  • Not “Millennials love experiences.”
  • Not pulled from a deck last year and recycled today.

Insight is friction. It’s clarity on a human truth your category hasn’t touched yet.
It’s the gut-punch behind the campaign—not the headline.

Without it, the work may look good.
But it won’t feel anything.

What This Means for Brands

If creativity is how we stand out, insight is how we break in.
Into minds. Into culture. Into relevance.

Without it, your ad becomes wallpaper.
With it, your ad becomes signal.

And right now, in an industry that can generate 10,000 versions of an idea with AI in under a minute,insight is the last unfair advantage.

This isn’t a creativity crisis. It’s a thinking one.

We’ve never had more tools, more channels, more data—
and yet, we keep mistaking noise for impact.

Without real insight, we’re just adding color to the void.
Insight is what gives a campaign a spine, a soul, and a shot at mattering.
Without it, we’re not communicating—we’re just performing.

And in a world flooded with content,
only the brands that see deeper will ever be seen at all.

via

via

As theaters closed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the creatives who populated their stages were plunged into a state of seemingly endless uncertainty. Aided by a delightful and metaphorically resonant piece of performance art, multidisciplinary artist Daniel J. Watts shares a personal perspective on reframing this moment of global stasis as an opportunity to reset and reflect on the potential of what comes after.

via

Page 1 of 3
1 2 3