Not every Cannes Lion roars in real life

Every year, some films are made to entertain the masses, and others are made to win Oscars. We all know that. We even say it proudly — “this one was made for the Oscars.” And we celebrate it. We don’t call it a scam.

So, why does advertising lack the same maturity?

This year at Cannes, DM9’s Grand Prix-winning campaign for Consul was pulled into a controversy, leading to the resignation of Icaro Doria, their chief creative officer (CCO). I’ve known Icaro for over 20 years. He’s an absolute creative genius. And make no mistake — he wouldn’t be where he is today without dozens of real, large-scale, game-changing campaigns for real brands. The kind of work that has inspired creative departments and moved markets around the world.

To reduce his legacy to one case study controversy is not only unfair — it’s deeply uncreative.

What happened here is not a scam. It’s a symptom.

Too often, the kind of fudging we saw in this case comes from the pressure to prove that the boldest ideas are also the most scalable. But why are we demanding that every creative provocation must also deliver mass adoption?

If you want to award scale, there is a separate category for that. It’s called Creative Effectiveness. And the whole Effie Awards are built on that. That is where those metrics belong. Creative awards, on the other hand, are about imagination.
Somewhere along the line, we started separating creativity and effectiveness like they were rivals. And then we began penalising creative ideas for not being efficient enough.

That’s like going to a car show and complaining that the concept cars aren’t good on mileage. The most exciting cars are not built for daily driving. They are built to show us what the future can look like.

The same goes for fashion. Nobody expects to wear a Met Gala outfit to the office on Monday morning. But we still applaud it. Because it sets the tone. It shows what’s possible. And no one confuses Met Gala looks with what’s sold at Zara. Both have value, but they serve very different roles.

This year, we’ve seen a slew of criticism after Cannes — DM9’s three campaigns, Budweiser’s Uninterrupted Ads, FCB India’s Lucky Yatra, and Britannia’s Nature Shapes Britannia, among them.

But I have an open challenge for the industry. Of all the hundreds of Gold Lions that India has won over the years, what percentage of them were truly high-impact, large-scale campaigns? Very few. And that’s okay. Because that’s not what all of them were meant to be.

The best creative work often starts with a hypothesis. What if people could pay with their fridges? What if emojis could become a language for the blind?
What if a beer bottle could stop domestic violence?

These are not always scalable, but they are signal flares. They tell the world what a brand can be — and more importantly, what our industry should be imagining.

Yes, we must hold ourselves to the highest standards of authenticity, legality, and transparency. But let’s not throw out the baby with the brief.

Because when we start calling every ambitious idea a scam, we’re not just questioning one agency. We’re questioning the entire creative spirit of advertising.

And that’s the real danger.

So, let’s be better. Let’s fact-check. Let’s credit sources. Let’s ensure that brands are genuinely behind the work.

But let’s also celebrate the craft, the courage, and the sheer audacity it takes to dream up something the world has never seen before.

This industry is smart enough to know that not all ideas are meant for mass rollout. Some are made to raise the bar — for the client, the agency, and for Cannes itself.

- Raj Kamble, founder and chief creative officer, Famous Innovations