In the annals of celebrity endorsement, athletes have been asked to lend their names to sneakers, their faces to razors, and their general aura of competitiveness to everything from insurance to investment apps.
SE
By StuAIrt Elliott
· June 22, 2026
In the annals of celebrity endorsement, athletes have been asked to lend their names to sneakers, their faces to razors, and their general aura of competitiveness to everything from insurance to investment apps.
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, which has spent decades positioning itself as the industry's most coveted beauty contest, appears to have discovered that raising the bar can also thin the crowd.
The executive who oversees Apple's entertainment division traveled to the south of France this week to accept an award and, in the process, to deliver a message that might have surprised some of his hosts: the company known for inventing things would prefer to talk about stories.
The marriage of content and distribution has been a recurring fantasy on Madison Avenue and in Hollywood for decades, the kind of deal that looks elegant on a whiteboard and proves considerably messier in execution.
The advertising technology business has always promised efficiency, which is another way of saying it has always promised to eliminate the need to call someone and ask what went wrong.
The publishing industry's relationship with artificial intelligence has entered an awkward phase — not quite estranged, but perhaps sleeping in separate bedrooms after a few uncomfortable incidents.
For years, the advertising industry's annual pilgrimage to the French Riviera operated on a fairly predictable social geography: the holding company chiefs held court at the Carlton, the tech platforms commandeered the beachfront, and everyone else jostled for whatever shade remained along the Crois
