Happy Friday! After a busy week at Programmatic AI in Las Vegas, AdExchanger is taking a much-needed respite for Memorial Day. But fear not – we’ll be back on Tuesday with the latest news.
Nothing Gold Cannes Stay
The Cannes Film Festival and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity have always been cultural shapeshifters.
In the 1950s, what would become Cannes Lions was created by cinema screen advertising contractors who wanted to highlight the high production values and artistic ambition of advertising, and specifically ads seen in theaters (fun trivia to trot out next month).
The creative festival that once drafted off the Cannes Film Festival was, in turn, co‑opted by Madison Avenue ad agencies focused on TV, outdoor campaigns and other media. In recent decades, the show has been steamrolled by ad tech, from Big Tech platforms (like Google, Amazon and Meta), to the ad tech row docked at the port. And over the past few years, retail media businesses like Uber, Albertsons, Walmart and Target have piled on, as well.
