Send Help – Phillip Robbie’s Cannes Wrap

Phillip Robbie, creative partner at Abel, Sydney, is on the ground in Cannes. Here, Robbie shares some key takeaways from the festival, exclusively for Campaign Brief.

Of all things on show at Cannes it would be hard not to acknowledge the increasing prevalence of Help on display. (That and the absolute domination of Heinz—shortlisted in seemingly almost every category on show).

We talk about working in the business of ideas, even if we are more acutely aware we are in the business of problems. While we are good when we are helping brands, we are at our best when we are simply helping people, and the work this year showed that. The clear shift from Purpose, to simply People is a refreshing one.

Help obviously dominated in the categories you would expect to find it—like Good and Health & Wellness. Eurofarma’s Scrolling Therapy and Claritin’s Diversitree were two standouts for (not only) me—the jury awarding them a Grand Prix and Gold respectively.

But Help was also evident in every Gold in the Design category (a favourite for me being PodHER’s, The Congregation) and a bulk of the Craft, PR, and Media categories.

Help was the way many speakers tread carefully around the topic of AI. Most talks focussed heavily on what it might give back to us and above all else how it can empower those who might otherwise be left behind.

A standout talk was BBDO CEO Andrew Robertson’s analysis of the decline in humour in advertising, and the evidence which suggests it’s one of the most effective tools in changing behaviour—even in sensitive topics. The talk culminated in the recommendation that ‘Humour’ be introduced as its own category.

And for an industry that can often take itself too seriously—I think a category like that may just help.