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While the 2024 Cannes Lions festival has had its share of drama—Elon Musk’s apology tour and Michael Kassan’s new venture both made headlines—the vibes along the Croisette and inside the parties were more earnest, reflective and purposeful, ADWEEK execs and editors reported.
In the second installment of our three-part Cannes Dispatch podcast series, ADWEEK CEO Will Lee, chief experience officer Jenny Rooney and editor in chief Ryan Joe discuss Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s comments from a group chat at ADWEEK House, a snippet from Joe’s interview with S4 Capital’s Sir Martin Sorrell and a dispatch from Europe creativity editor Brittaney Kiefer following Musk’s onstage appearance during the festival.
Stars and execs open up about parenthood, leadership
Ruderman, who described the entire Cannes Lions festival as “starrier” than she expected, also noted the level of openness that leaders brought to their speaking engagements throughout the week. At ADWEEK House, Ohanian shared anecdotes about instilling confidence in his daughter, while NBCU president of ad sales and partnerships Karen Kovacs talked about learning while leading.
“When you’re in a place like Cannes, people are hungry for getting beyond the focus on the tactical, marketing-speak conversations and getting real,” Rooney said.
Still, the starpower was as heady as it was palpable: “Being at a party where I was dancing between Jessica Alba and Linda Yaccarino—I think that could only happen at Cannes Lions,” Ruderman said.
Sorrell on Kassan
In a conversation with Joe, Sorrell reflect on Kassan’s impact on the industry’s tentpole events: “CES has become more Cannes, Cannes has become more CES. Maybe due to Michael Kassan’s influence.”
Kassan going up against MediaLink is “extraordinary,” he added. “We’ll see what happens. Michael will be fine. And then he’ll start again, and he’ll continue to try and buy it out.”
Musk makes good?
After telling advertisers to go fuck themselves in an onstage appearance last fall, X CEO Elon Musk joined WPP CEO Mark Read onstage at Cannes in what appears to have been an attempt to woo its clients back onto his embattled social platform, formerly known as Twitter.
