La plus ca change, plus c’est le meme chose. That famous phrase will make sense shortly. I hope.
Even getting to Cairns in Cannes is an event.
“We’d like to apologise to passengers that your flight is delayed. A fire extinguisher has fallen and discharged resulting in the aircraft cabin being covered in white material, so the aircraft needs to be cleaned before you can board.”
So came the unwelcome announcement from Death Star, which resulted in a delay of more than an hour, followed by another delay when a piece of luggage had to be retrieved from the hold because it belonged to a passenger who was not on our flight.
Then – no WiFi.
I did, however, have one source of amusement upon landing (so late) when I saw the below ad in the ladies’ toilets. Contextual advertising at its best – with a super weird headline – just below the helpful illustration advising women not to squat over the toilet seat. Kudos to Convenience Advertising for knowing its Cannes in Cairns audience.
We completely missed one event and then bolted from the airport to the Welcome to Boomtown Party at the Wolf Lane Distillery to slam a couple of delightful cocktails and head to the hotel.
So, back to the opener.
This industry has had several existential crises but all have the same theme(s).
Put simply, this industry has an image problem – it’s ageist, it lacks diversity, it’s discriminatory and sexist, has rising mental health issues and, on the whole, it’s whiter than white.
These were the themes of day one – and it wasn’t pretty.
The industry doesn’t take kindly to being mocked – with some of MC Chris Taylor’s jokes not landing well at all.
The panel on body image not only tackled body image, but discrimination and the mental health problems that go alongside it. Taryn Brumfitt said there was a “health emergency” among young people who faced an existential crisis (there it is again) as a result of social media.
Sunita Gloster AM said the industry should afford “the same opportunities for mediocre women as mediocre men”. Which is pretty sad really.
And all called for agencies to challenge client briefs.
Keynote Lisa Wilkinson spoke about women under scrutiny, the scourge of the internet, our disconnected community and media as a cheap sugar hit of clicks. And then, in the midst of this mental health emergency, she encourages the audience to forget about likeability.
And on to ageism. The young guns versus old guard debate was another session winner. Apparently, the old guard has “neural efficiency” when it comes to learning. That efficiency I can tell you comes from years of hard slog, being beaten around the head, and being the subject of sexism and discrimination which makes you a pretty ‘efficient’ beast. Who needs ChatGPT (frankly only useful for coming up with ridiculous adjectives) when your IRL war wounds are your IRL source?
I like the line about ageism being an equal-opportunity offender. When younger people are told “You’re too young to understand” – that too is ageism. Any age discrimination is not funny and this industry is a “stinker”.
Yep, there is a remarkable imbalance in this industry, only seven per cent are over the age of 55. But perhaps ponder on this – why would an older person want to stay in the industry when all this is going on?
It’s pretty depressing stuff really. But sadly we’ve heard it all before. Calls for changes. Calls for equality. Calls for “we can’t have a panel without a woman on it”. Calls for us all to “do better”.
And yet here we are. Stuck in Groundhog Day.
So, once again, La plus ca change, plus c’est le meme chose.
PS Thanks to my colleague and right-hand person Julie Wright for assisting in this article.
PPS Over to you Joe Frazer.
