Let’s Actually Practise What We Preached at Cannes

DEIB, or diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, appears to have become an almost taboo topic. This year I arrived on La Croisette under the impression that the industry had generally lost its patience with the concept of “diversity.” From what I’d seen back home in the US, DEIB was almost becoming a dirty word. 

Then, a week after Cannes, the Supreme Court ruled against affirmative action policies. 

In the US, affirmative action policies and practices were brought in by JFK to protect the fair employment and education of individuals “without regard to their race, creed, colour, or national origin.”

“Also known as positive action or positive discrimination, affirmative action seeks to include particular groups that were historically discriminated against based on their ethnicity in areas in which such groups are underrepresented, mistreated or suffer from lack of public support" *

I knew that the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn race-based college admissions would deeply affect millions of people across America who, without these mechanisms in place, are more likely to miss out on the best and brightest opportunities. This ruling could result in a distinct lack of diversity in key educational and professional institutions.

When looked at through the lens of advertising, diversity at the educational-level is particularly crucial, considering the percentage of university graduates that make it into executive roles. 

Thankfully, my time at Cannes Lions reinstated my faith in our industry, and motivated me for the coming year – change is coming. 

Marc Pritchard, a bonafide titan of advertising fame, made a rousing and urgent speech during the festival. He urged marketers to “reset” the creative bar across insight, inclusion and impact to drive market growth for their brands. “When we delight more people it creates more value, making the size of the pie bigger for all to share in.”, the P&G chief brand officer said we need to think more about the growth market because, at the end of the day, this is business. It's not about trying to appease specific demographics – it's about making money.

The planet’s growing population is increasingly becoming diversified, all races and religions, all different types of individuals. How do we appeal to those individuals? How do we truly position our products in the market in order to appeal to their needs? How do we truly embrace DEIB and make it better? This must be the focus.

Over the course of the week, I also took to the stage on several occasions to address the Cannes crowd. I made sure to touch on the subject of DEIB during each of the panels I spoke on. Pritchard’s speech had stirred something up within me and I wanted to carry his message forward: we must figure out how to come together as one for the sake of humanity, and good business. 

My agency, KUAMP, is not just a Black agency. We're a humanistic agency. We're personable, we're communicative and we want to reach everyone. The best way to do this is by showing up authentically in our approach to the work. 

We are all caught up in the wrong things, the left is so far left and the right is so far right, and we're missing the point. We’re focusing on the wrong things, we're losing opportunities, and we’re losing the planet. I want to focus on unification, to advance, in an equitable way for everyone's benefit. 

I found people were receptive to this equitable humanistic approach to community building and I received positive feedback after each of my talks – which gave me hope. 

My time at Cannes confirmed that DEIB is still important and, right now, it’s all about how we phrase it. The ongoing political and societal division in the US will undoubtedly impact diversity, so it’s about reclaiming the market and putting the focus back on the human needs feeding our industry in the first place.