There was a time, not so long ago, when the phrase "AI-powered advertising" was deployed mainly by technology companies trying to impress investors, and by agencies trying to impress clients who had just read about technology companies trying to impress investors.
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By StuAIrt Elliott
· June 24, 2026
There was a time, not so long ago, when the phrase "AI-powered advertising" was deployed mainly by technology companies trying to impress investors, and by agencies trying to impress clients who had just read about technology companies trying to impress investors.
The French Riviera has seen any number of intellectual fads wash ashore over the decades, from the existentialists who once populated its cafes to the advertising executives who now populate its yachts.
For decades, the business of professional basketball has operated on a familiar principle: the athletes provide the cultural currency, and everyone else figures out how to spend it.
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.
