If Cannes Lions is a microcosm of the advert business, then this yr’s pageant mirrored a development enjoying out throughout the company world: the general public discourse about variety, fairness, and inclusion (DEI) has gotten quieter.
As just lately as three years in the past DEI was the subject du jour at Cannes Lions. However attendees this yr informed ADWEEK they noticed fewer Palais classes centered on DEI and fewer dialog about it offstage.
“There have been disappointingly few discussions dedicated to addressing variety,” Rania Robinson, CEO of London company Quiet Storm, informed ADWEEK.
Cannes Lions hosted a number of essential stage talks on the Palais centered on DEI. Havas and The New York Instances spoke about neurodiversity, and expertise company ZBD Expertise spoke on a session known as “The Inclusion Revolution.” Nonetheless, dialog on the pageant centered as a substitute on the impression of synthetic intelligence (AI), in addition to developments similar to creators and sports activities advertising.
“Conversations that after centered on fairness, illustration, and systemic progress have been largely changed with AI, ROI, and humor as the brand new inventive forex,” mentioned Ted Kohnen, CEO of company Park & Battery.
Cannes Lions spokespeople didn’t reply to ADWEEK’s request for specifics in regards to the variety of attendees or DEI programming this yr.
The dearth of open dialogue about DEI in Cannes displays a wider company shift amid companies strolling again their DEI commitments resulting from right-wing political strain. Goal, Ford, and Walmart are amongst main manufacturers which have ceased or rolled again DEI initiatives previously yr.
Throughout Pleasure Month in June, firms together with Anheuser-Busch, PepsiCo, and Nissan dropped or scaled again their sponsorship of Pleasure occasions, the Related Press reported. And through Black Historical past Month in February, mentions declined in manufacturers’ social media and company bulletins, ADWEEK evaluation revealed.
Entrepreneurs are extra cautious about articulating values and taking public stances amid an “more and more unpredictable” and tense geopolitical setting, in keeping with analysis from the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) printed this month. In WFA’s survey of world entrepreneurs, 81% mentioned that as we speak’s setting is riskier in comparison with 12 months in the past.
Cannes Lions has been criticized in recent times for too closely awarding purpose-driven work moderately than commercially-driven campaigns. Final yr, the pageant added a humor subcategory to encourage extra business-minded entries.
Amid these pressures, attendees like Lola Bakare, inclusive advertising strategist and writer, noticed a prevailing “angle of restraint round discussions associated to DEI.”
Whereas Bakare participated in panels hosted by companions similar to ADWEEK, Tubi, Objective Hive, and e.l.f. Magnificence that “addressed the topic head on,” she “noticed an absence of willingness to ‘go there’ from others whom I’ve partnered with previously, like LinkedIn,” Bakare mentioned.
As a substitute, she noticed a rise in “coded language” at many occasions, changing the phrases “variety, fairness, and inclusion” with phrases like “tradition” and “objective.”
She mentioned manufacturers and platforms with the facility to advocate for DEI boldly are shying away from the chance. As a substitute, they’re “toeing an arbitrary line drawn within the sand by a loud minority of voices that desire we regress again to a establishment.”
Filling within the gaps
Although DEI dialogue was noticeably quieter, the subject wasn’t completely absent from Cannes.
Fringe occasions, similar to WACL’s Empower Café and Cannes Can: Range Collective (CC:DC)’s Inkwell Seashore, “crammed within the hole for extra inclusive conversations,” mentioned Adrianne C. Smith, founding father of CC:DC and chief inclusion and impression officer at FleishmanHillard.
Inkwell Seashore debuted at Cannes in 2019 in an effort to make the pageant extra inclusive. In its first yr, Inkwell drew a median of 40 to 50 attendees per session. This yr, that elevated to a median of 100 to 150 attendees at every of its seven or eight panels per day, Smith mentioned. Over 10,000 folks registered for the seashore this yr.
Nonetheless, Inkwell additionally needed to barely cut back its activation this yr after some sponsors diminished or ceased their funding, Smith mentioned.
“There have been even some who pulled out 10 days earlier than we hit the bottom, which was devastating,” she mentioned. “Uncertainty is the factor making folks danger averse–they need to simply do what they know.”
Visiblity within the work
At odds with the dearth of candid dialog alongside the Croisette, the work awarded at Cannes this yr got here from a extra numerous set of world companies.
For instance, the Academy of Movement Image Arts & Sciences, the Chicago Listening to Society, and FCB Chicago received three Grands Prix for “Caption with Intention,” which redesigned closed captioning for the Deaf and Exhausting of Listening to communities. British broadcaster Channel 4 received a Movie Grand Prix for its Paralympics advert difficult incapacity stereotypes. And Brazilian firm Idomed and company Artplan received the Business Craft Grand Prix for a e-book addressing racial inequities confronted by Black sufferers within the healthcare system.
Cannes Lions additionally expanded the scope of the Glass award—established in 2015 to acknowledge work progressing gender equality—to campaigns selling illustration throughout incapacity, race, sexuality, and social inequity. The 2025 Glass Grand Prix went to Dove’s newest “Actual Magnificence” initiative.
“Whereas variety wasn’t trending within the talks or headlines, it was nonetheless current within the work, in casting, in storytelling, and within the subjects manufacturers are prepared to deal with,” mentioned Alex Bennett-Grant, co-founder of Amsterdam company We Are Pi. “The inventive business hasn’t turned away from it—not but.”
He and Smith mentioned that whereas open dialogue about DEI waned alongside the Croisette, they each noticed a extra numerous crowd of attendees in comparison with earlier years.
“The general public who seemed like me within the first yr [I attended Cannes] have been both the assistance or the leisure,” Smith mentioned. “Now I see extra thought leaders in C-suite or management positions who’re on the levels, and that’s necessary.”
Nonetheless, she famous the dearth of “mainstream presence of [DEI] conversations” on the pageant, including she hopes for extra subsequent yr.
For his half, Bennett-Grant warned that as authorities insurance policies and company priorities shift, the advert business “wants to remain vigilant” about DEI.
“There’s an actual danger that progress begins to roll again,” he mentioned. “We should shield the house that’s been created for underrepresented voices.”
