Is it time for Cannes Lions to have a Multicultural Category?
Like many of you, every year when I leave the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, I leave inspired. And since I’ve had the honor to judge a few times in my career, I’m always challenged to do my part to move the industry forward.
First, I would like to give credit where credit is due. Cannes Lions has done well when it comes to supporting and encouraging diversity and inclusion, especially for people of color. This year I saw more folks that looked like me strolling
La Croisette than ever before. This is thanks in part to Inkwell founder, Adrianne Smith and the Cannes Do Initiative, and recently Peter Ukhurebor of BLK@ and Imani Laners’ The Impact of Color Cannes. Kudos when it comes to agencies, brands and companies bringing in talent from the entertainment, music and sports industries respectively. But with all of that, I find it lacking in The Work itself. At the end of the day, isn’t that what we are celebrating?
Having a dedicated multicultural category would go a long way to set the stage for more entries that have truly targeted multicultural creative, strategic consumer insights, PR, media, activations and data executions. This also applies to the opportunity for multicultural agencies, brands and media companies that unceremoniously contribute so much to the industry, to be seen on the world stage.
Many Bronze, Silver, Gold and even Grand Prix Lions have been taken home that have borrowed, tapped into or have been influenced by trends that were created from multicultural communities. It’s past time to give multicultural the opportunity to get its flowers. Or better yet…it’s Lions.
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Congratulations, FCB Global team! 👏