Advertising and marketing round-up, week ending 24 June

The talk and debate has raged seemingly for ever, with tempers and controversy at boiling point, but it’s finally over.

Yes of course we are talking about the festival of advertising at Cannes.

British entrants did well. Ogilvy & Mather’s ‘Breathless Choir’ for Philips won a Grand Prix for pharmaceutical; Google’s DeepMind (developed in London) AlphaGo project won in innovation; Adam & Eve DDB’s Monty for John Lewis won in effectiveness; and FCB Inferno’s Project Literacy for Pearson won in health and wellness.

That’s the good. The bad was ugly. One party invite has raised the bar for stupidity, stipulating that only ‘attractive guests’ would be welcome, busted by Brit in New York Cindy Gallop. The Guardian took this opportunity to take apart 11 female advertising tropes or stereotypes that should be retired.

One Lion winner turned out to be a fake app with an emotive subject – helping refugees, something not supposed to be able to happen at Cannes where the creative should be real.

Although Marketing Week columnist Mark Ritson is scathing about what we can learn from Cannes, it is worthy of note that two big winners feature artificial intelligence approaches to creative, Google’s DeepMind (see above) and JWT Amsterdam’s The Next Rembrandt, which won in both the creative data and cyber categories.

The last missive from Cannes features Mr Pop again, with his unique take on advertising.

This week we also learned about the ugliest colour in the world: Pantone 448C. It will be used on the generic packaging that cigarette brands will have to use from May 2017 in order to deter smokers. Disgust can be a powerful motivator.

Of course there is an elephant in the room, which is the Brexit situation. A debacle for Cameron, who has resigned, and leaving an uncertain future. If you thought the Brexit debates would now all go away, think again.

But it’s worth having a look at some of the ads on both sides of the debate, and some of the appeals from our European neighbours. For example, the French decided to use food to persuade us to stay. This was apparently illegal. The Germans wrote us love letters, best read through the language-mangling prism of Google Translate.

For one of the most cringe moments, perhaps ever, take a look at Lib Dem leader Tim Farron do the John Barnes rap from ‘World in Motion’. Best watched from behind the sofa with your hands over your eyes.

If you wonder what happens now, well nobody has the foggiest. Morgan Stanley’s chief markets strategist (and former BBC journalist) Stephanie Flanders considered the implications in early June, while legal blogger Jack of Kent gave five things to consider. Ad bigwigs are unanimous in their misgivings.

Finally, it’s Pride this weekend, and good to see how the LGBTQIA community has taken to annoying ISIS in colourful style.

Enjoy the sun.