Hopefully you can hear the roar of the UK Lion winners this week as we celebrate another haul of awards from the very best work by our industry as it competes against the rest of the world in Cannes. Our UK Advertising campaign (beautifully developed by VCCP and friends) has been firing on all cylinders to attract attention and new business for the brilliant companies involved in our special trade mission and programme of activities. There’s been many highlights and I’ll be writing/posting more about these (and learnings) in the coming days, but I thought I’d share the following from a session involving Michael McIntyre (facilitated by my colleague, Aisling) who began by pouring a glass of water over himself, as he, like all of us, battled with the heat (more on that later).
In a thoroughly entertaining session at the Empower Cafe, he told the audience – “I was born to be in advertising. I didn’t call my Mum, ‘Mum.’ I called her Head of Growth.” He went on… “I only had one toy when I was a boy – a funnel. I said ‘Look Mummy. Top of funnel. Bottom of funnel!’ She said ‘What are you talking about?’ But now… I’m with my people.” And he then let out a full-throated roar. He was there to promote a new business he’s launched called Fanalysis, along with Sky Media.
Our pick of the ads:
- Our Ad in the A is one of Cannes Lion’s top winners – ‘The KitKat Heist’ by VML London for KitKat, when 12 tonnes of chocolate were stolen and turned into an international treasure hunt.
- Adam&eveTBWA used a playful outreach to the Flat Earth community in ‘Expedition Impossible’ to show the durability of clothing by Columbia.
- Leo UK made a group chat created in 2012 the centre of ‘The Filet-o-Fish Facebook Society of 2012’ for McDonald’s
- Skoda created the world’s first bike bell designed to penetrate noise cancelling headphones in ‘Duobell’ by AMV BBDO and PHD Media London.
- Saatchi & Saatchi UK dug into the archives in ‘Tableau’ for John Lewis to celebrate the role the brand plays in modern life across the last century.
Our must-reads:
- WPP’s CEO, Cindy Rose, has explained the importance of building trust with clients as she launched their new set of five ‘Trust Principles’. (Campaign)
- Ad Net Zero has made an update to their sustainable tool, the Global Media Sustainability Framework, to track 95% of global media spend emissions. (Media Leader)
- Sir John Hegarty, BBH Founder, described the essentials which he believes the industry has forgotten: the focus on promotion over persuasion and the battle for attention. (LBB)
- Our Communications Director, Matt Bourn, and Ad Net Zero’s Elle Chartres have explained why advertisers should make every brief count in support of a more sustainable way of life. (LBB)
Dates for your diary:
- Learn how to avoid creating misleading ads at the ASA’s live virtual training on 21 July. AA members can benefit from enhanced group discounts for this event by applying the relevant promo codes: 35% off for groups of 4–24 delegates (AAgroup35) and 60% off for 25+ delegates (AAgroup60). T&Cs apply.
- CreatorFest 2026 on 14-15 July has a packed two-day agenda of networking and panels. Get 20% off your tickets using the code AA20OFF here.
And finally, there’s been much said about the heat and about the timing of the heatwave smack bang on top of Cannes Lions and London Climate Action Week. The irony of nature… I won’t get drawn into that, but I will implore you to get hold of two things that Ad Net Zero has released this week and make sure your business is on board with both, and you share them with everyone you know.
The first is the Every Brief Counts toolkit designed after a successful pilot to help anyone build sustainable storytelling elements into their ad campaigns. The second is the latest edition of the Global Media Sustainability Framework which is now providing the framework for tracking 95% of the world’s ad emissions from the media plan. Both are essential if we are to achieve our goal of changing the way we work and changing the work we make in service of a sustainable way of life on this planet.
