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The Campaign PodcastAuthor: Campaign
Welcome to Campaign magazine's podcast, our weekly look at the biggest stories, campaigns and important issues in UK advertising and media. Presented by Campaign's editorial team. Read more at http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/resources/podcasts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Language: en Genres: Business, Business News, Marketing, News Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Is Cannes Lions 2025 a watershed moment for awards?
Episode 49
Tuesday, 15 July, 2025
Three awards have been withdrawn from Cannes Lions 2025 over fabrication of case studies and concerns around their legitimacy. In the weeks that have followed Cannes Festival of Creativity, the integrity of advertising awards has been questioned and what was once widely accepted in advertising awards, has now been exposed.DM9's “Efficient way to pay” was the most notable withdrawal as it won the Grand Prix in the Creative Data Lions. The DDB agency was caught using AI to fabricate news coverage in the case study and misleading the jury. Two other DM9 awards were also withdrawn. The agency’s co-president and CCO Icaro Doria stepped down. Following the Cannes news, D&AD removed two pencils from the shop.However, DM9 were not alone in the scandal as other awards have also since been questioned.While the industry has been rocked by the news, many have acknowledged that embellishment, exaggeration and fabrication within awards entries is a common occurrence within adland. This episode features Campaign editor Maisie McCabe, deputy editor Gemma Charles and creativity and culture editor Gurjit Degun, who discuss what has led to this behaviour and what happens next for awards.Cannes Lions has since responded with new "integrity standards" to ban agencies that submit "wilfully false" campaignsThis episode was hosted by Campaign's tech editor Lucy Shelley.Further reading:Adland’s ‘New Year's’ resolution should be to revive its integrity at Cannes LionsLePub takes disciplinary action following scrutiny of Cannes Lion-winning campaignHavas Costa Rica’s Cannes Lions-winning ad, Lessons of Shame, needs lessons of legitimacyHavas and World Vision’s Lessons of Shame under scrutiny after Cannes Lions winDon’t hate the player, hate the gameCannes Lions rocked by controversies over AI, authenticity and licensingDM9 admits faults in case study for Grand Prix-winning work Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
