Do not go gentle; piss people off

By Hari Krishnan and Dilshara Jayamanna, reporting from the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity

So here we are on Day 5 and the mind is already blown to bits by the talent on display. Today is no different with a glittering array of stars all around.

Anderson Cooper and Anthony Bourdain teamed up for a delicious session. The CNN stars held court in the Lumière Theatre, discussing their careers, progress, and Bourdain’s recent meal with Barack Obama at a noodle shop in Hanoi. “The Secret Service were very nervous,” he said. “They were not happy with the venue, let me put it that way.” 

Both men shared interview tips – eye contact, for Cooper, and alcohol, for Bourdain. And towards the end of their session, Cooper brought up Bourdain’s famous edict that you shouldn’t order fish at restaurants on Mondays, but the former chef disavowed that advice, saying it’s no longer true – “‘Don’t eat fish on Monday’ will unfortunately be on my headstone.”

The Onion says sponsor content works. And it isn’t joking. But the satire publication’s chief, Mike McAvoy, warned that it requires a deft touch and a dose of humility. Refreshingly candid, he shared examples of The Onion’s sponsor content that fell short of those standards – for instance, “Man Buys The Living Daylights Out Of Patio Furniture At Home Depot’s Spring Black Friday.” It was too forced, he said.

A more successful piece was one for White Castle headlined, “Man Craving Some Kind Of Human Connection That Would Let Him Know He’s Not Alone In This World, Sliders. “Smart readers”, McAvoy said, “do not like blatant endorsements. If you try to shove a message down someone’s throat, they won’t read it, they won’t share, and you won’t achieve your results.”

“I’m here to ask questions and sometimes piss people off,” Gwyneth Paltrow said of her role as curator of goop, her popular weekly lifestyle portal (which is also soon coming to Snapchat). Asked about her sometimes wildly expensive product recommendations, Paltrow said they are done knowingly. “We’ll link to a $15,000 gold dildo just to troll people. It’s fun. We look for products that will create that kind of reaction.”

Keith Weed from Unilever spoke about people beginning to judge brands based on their behaviour. If you’re an environment friendly brand, you’re likely to be preferred by more consumers today than three years ago. Unilever’s top five brands today are sustainable living brands with purpose and meaning and millions of people are engaging with these brands.

Kevin Kelly from Wired Magazine spoke about how the internet has been all about information and how virtual reality would be all about experiences. He said that in the next decade Google’s revenue could actually emerge out of marketing artificial intelligence in different forms. And that virtual reality would be the most ‘social’ of all social media.

Next up was none other than Oliver Stone. One thing that struck us straightaway was his clarity of vision. Something that is probably desperately required in Marketing and Advertising. He said that creativity can change the world and the way human beings think. He said that he’s always tried to make meaningful movies that make a difference to the viewer. 

In this day and age, it’s important that brands stand up for something they believe in because there are very few people left who do that. He had the audience in raptures with the trailer to his next movie ‘Snowden’. He was also very forthcoming about the referendum that was taking place in Britain and said that the entire idea of EU was just so that United States’ could control a block of nations more easily!

Iggy Pop came in and showed off his rock star self. He had everyone in splits with his candid views about advertising. The rock star who was famous for leaping into the crowds turned himself into a Creative Director and had some ideas for a few brands like BMW. “If BMW hired me, if I was writing the copy, I’d go, “THIS IS A BMW! SHUT UP AND BUY THE CAR! BUY IT!” he shouted with a laugh. “Something a bit less smooth, I would say.”

Along with his more ridiculous mock ad ideas, Pop also had some thoughtful things to say about marketing – and what you really need to give people to have them respond to you. “In my work, I have a God, and that’s the public,” he said. “The public is my God. And this public God does not like supplicants. The public God wants some action. They want you to sock it to ‘em. And I suppose, in advertising, it gets trickier. I would assume ultimately the company’s God has to be the buyer, the buying public. And in the middle is this kind of voodoo priest called the ad guy. You’ve gotta convince the client that you’re gonna make it rain – and that if it does rain, it was your doing!”

“The key, though, is really just to believe in what you’re selling,” he added. “It doesn’t have to be something vulgar, either. It can be something very interesting,” he said. “You have to give people love. And by that I don’t mean ‘I love you so much!’ But if there’s nothing in what you’re putting out there for which you feel love, if you don’t have something that came out of your gut one day and it was either fun, or moving, or liberating, or something that quenched your true human desire, then you put it out there calculating how people are going to react – Then they›ll believe that if they buy this, they›re the ‘Most Interesting Man in the World!’ or whatever – I don›t think it›s going to add up to much in the new world.”

It’s been a tiring day. Day 6 is looming large. Time to crawl into a bar.

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