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In 2017, amid the buzz of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, holding company Publicis Groupe dropped a bombshell. The network announced that it was foregoing all marketing efforts and awards including Cannes for the next year to refocus its resources on developing an artificial intelligence platform called Marcel.
Though Publicis Groupe CEO Arthur Sadoun heralded Marcel as a ground-breaking tool that would transform how its talent worked, the news was largely met with skepticism, ridicule and even some anger.
But six years later, as advertising and marketing executives convene for another Cannes Lions, technology has advanced and attitudes towards AI have shifted. Publicis is seizing the moment to launch a Marcel anniversary campaign, whose message could best be summed up as: We told you so.
Along the Croisette in Cannes for the duration of the festival, Publicis is running tongue-in-cheek ads that promote Marcel while demonstrating how far AI has progressed in just a handful of years. The images, made with generative AI platform Midjourney, playfully recreate initial reactions to Publicis’ controversial announcement.
One poster features the prompt, “Ad executive in Cannes reacting to the launch of Marcel,” with an image of a laughing man in a suit. Another shows a young “Publicis creative” whose eyes widen in dismay at the news.
Coming full circle
The line at the bottom of the ads reads: “Is it ok to talk about AI in Cannes now?”
That is a rhetorical question, because the answer is an obvious yes. Since the recent rise of ChatGPT, AI is now high on the industry’s agenda, with this year’s festival programming packed full of mainstage and fringe events exploring the technology’s impact on business and creativity.
Creative campaigns made with generative AI tools like ChatGPT or Midjourney will also be in the spotlight, though it remains to be seen whether awards juries deem any worthy of the big prizes.
For Publicis, the chance to talk about AI in Cannes again is a “full circle” moment, said chief strategy officer Carla Serrano.
“It’s an acceptance that AI has hit our industry with incredible fervor,” she told Adweek. “Part of the reason we’re celebrating Marcel’s sixth birthday is to show how [AI] has moved on pretty quickly in a short amount of time.”