Indian contingent bags two more silver Lions

Mumbai: Third day was the charm for Indian entries at Cannes Lions. On Wednesday, India bagged two more silver Lions, bringing up the total tally to 11 at the time of going to press.

With 12 entries shortlisted in four categories, India won two silver Lions in the PR Lions awards under the 'engagement' category, with FCB Kinnect Mumbai's 'Lulumelon EOSS' for HDFC Bank in the 'use of events and stunts' category, and VML Mumbai's 'Sing to Remember' for Coca Cola in the 'single market-campaign' category.

Rohan Mehta, CEO, FCB Kinnect and FCB/SIX India, told ET: "The Lulumelon EOSS campaign enables people to experience our work first-hand. Over the past 2 years, fraud-fighting influencer Vigil Aunty has been central to HDFC Bank's efforts against the rampant financial scams in India. Seeing our long-term commitment to combating fraud recognised on a global stage like Cannes Lions is rewarding."


Indian agencies have also added five more shortlists in the 'sustainable development goals' Lions category, bringing India's total tally to 59 shortlisted entries this year, surpassing last year's 43.

The show Musk go on
Apart from the awards, the big draw on Wednesday was Tesla CEO Elon Musk in conversation with WPP CEO Mark Read.

Josy Paul, chairman at BBDO India, attended the event. He said, "Musk was unlike anything I have seen in my 20 years at Cannes. Three venues (the main one and two where it was being aired) were packed. The queues to get in were long. One point that stood out for me was when Musk said that work would become optional and will make us question why we are here. It will give rise to an existential crisis - a crisis of meaning. I found that to be such an interesting term. Musk got philosophical and I have never heard someone speak about the present and future in such terms - it really was amazing."

Musk said: "I tend to agree with Geoff Hinton - one of the godfathers of AI - and he thinks there's a 10-20% probability of something terrible happening." He added we needed to look on the bright side as the "glass is 80% full".

Speaking about brands who advertise on X (earlier Twitter), Musk said advertisers have a right to appear next to content that they find compatible with their brands. "That's totally fine," Musk said. "What is not cool is insisting that there can be no content they disagree with on the platform."

Coming up
Other notable events included Alexander Chen, creative director at Google Creative Lab, and Alex Schultz, chief marketing officer and vice-president of Analytics for Meta.

Day 4 promises to be equally insightful, with Diana Frost, chief growth officer of Kraft Heinz, sharing her views on how legacy brands can be revamped for a new age audience.