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As the 2022 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity kicked off, an uninvited, award-winning former marketer bounded onto the stage.
The goal of Gustav Martner, now head of creative for Greenpeace Nordic, was to wrench the focus away from the organizers in the name of the climate movement. He returned his own gold lion—which he’d won in 2007 for a Volkswagen campaign—and quickly unrolled a banner calling for a ban on fossil fuel advertising before being swept offstage by security guards.
This year, a climate activist will again take the Palais’s main stage—this time, with an invite.
On June 22, Will Skeaping, a strategist and activist with environmental group Extinction Rebellion (XR), will speak alongside data analytics firm Kantar, which will highlight its new sustainability marketing research, and alcohol giant Asahi on the role of the ad industry in the fight against climate change.
It’s part of what’s expected to be a broader tonal shift among the climate contingent of this year’s Cannes Lions Festival. Rather than focusing heavily on disruptive stunts, many climate groups are ready for deeper conversations with ad industry professionals, whether that’s low- and mid-level creatives or Adland’s top decision-makers.
“There’s been a real shift in the way that the industry has begun to think about the relationship with major polluters,” Duncan Meisel, executive director of activist group Clean Creatives, told journalists. “There’s an opportunity in Cannes this year […] to really up the ambition of the industry.”
Activists take the stage
Founded in 2018, XR gained notoriety in the U.K. and worldwide for its disruptive tactics, which often resulted in protesters being arrested like in 2019.
However, the group announced a temporary strategy shift for 2023 on the eve of the New Year. Members would focus less on direct action and more on building the cultural momentum necessary for climate action, the new statement explained, prioritizing “attendance over arrest and relationships over roadblocks.”
XR’s presence at the Cannes Lions Festival aligns with this new strategy, Skeaping told Adweek.
