It’s OK to Talk About AI Now: Publicis Hits Back at Haters by Celebrating Marcel in Cannes

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.”

That power may be more evident, but many in the industry remain fearful and suspicious of AI, particularly of how it could take people’s jobs or erode creativity. That is why Publicis’ campaign also comes with a note of caution. 

“Now that [AI] is in the hands of creators, we have to create safe and private places for it and partner with the right companies and people, to make sure we’re evolving AI properly but doing so in a responsible way,” Serrano said. “We’re celebrating AI, but with caution.” 

Converting the skeptics

Half a decade ago, one of the company’s own leaders–Publicis Groupe France chief creative officer Marco Venturelli­–was one of the doubters.

Since then, he’s come around. He told Adweek that while using an AI tool to develop the Marcel campaign, he was “surprised” by both the images’ quality and speed of production, which gave him “more time for conception.”

“Things are improving fast,” he said. “[For creatives] there’s a mental shift required to see [AI] as a tool, not a competition.” 

After a delayed launch, with a U.K. pilot in 2019 followed by a U.S. debut in 2020, Marcel has become an important part of Publicis’ business, according to company leaders. Especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, as staff shifted to remote work, the platform “was a godsend” by facilitating easier organization and communication internally, said chief talent officer Emmanuel André.

Other recent Marcel developments include PublicisGPT, the company’s own generative AI tool, and the Work Your World experience, which supports hybrid working by allowing employees to relocate to any office in the world for up to six weeks. 

Besides celebrating the lofty potential of AI, Publicis may have another motivation for advertising Marcel’s anniversary in Cannes Lions, which is famously a place for deal-making and client scouting. Serrano told Adweek that an undisclosed client recently hired Publicis to build a Marcel duplicate for their business. 

By the end of this year’s Cannes Lions, not everyone may come away as an AI believer–but one of the industry’s biggest players has set its stake in the ground.