Back from the Croisette, with a few thoughts.

Hello there,

Well, that was Cannes. Busy, overwhelming, a touch sweaty, and as always completely worth it. The talks get more celebrity-studded every year, but the real gold is the same as ever: the conversations in the gaps. Here are three that stuck with me.

A few familiar faces from the week

Chris with friends and colleagues at Cannes Lions 2026

Three things that stuck

My takeaways from Cannes 2026

The creators' influence keeps growing.

The creator presence was the biggest I've ever seen, and the smartest brands have stopped treating creators as a one-off reach buy. The real value sits in long-term partnerships, rewarded on performance rather than follower count. Treat a creator as set-and-forget and it tends to fall flat. Just fix your measurement before you scale the spend.

The best AI work was quietly human.

The Film Grand Prix went to Anthropic's Claude (the ad I tipped last week), an AI company winning the top film prize with a gag about a future drowning in bad AI ads. And this was the first Cannes held under tough new AI-integrity rules. The lesson: AI can be a genuine creative partner now, ideas included. What it can't supply is the taste, the judgement or the honesty. Use it to make, never to fake.

Start with intention (thank you, Oprah).

Collecting her LionHeart award, Oprah shared that before every show, and every interview, she holds an "intention" meeting: an honest chat about what everyone wants to walk away with.

It is, in essence, a pre-mortem for a conversation: agree what good looks like before you begin. And clarity like that matters more than ever.

“The best communication starts with intention.”

Oprah Winfrey, LionHeart seminar, Cannes Lions 2026

It's clear we are living in an increasingly volatile world. From a business perspective, the teams that cope best will be the ones whose leaders clearly share their vision (not KPIs) and then give their people the autonomy to get there.

I still believe the foundational skill that outlasts every trend will be your ability to remain curious, learn and evolve over time. This all reminds me of one of my favourite quotes:

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.”

Alvin Toffler

That, more than any Lion, is what I brought home.

See who won

Every Grand Prix winner, all in one place. We've gathered the lot into a single playlist for you to binge.

Watch every Grand Prix winner

That's my brief summary from the south of France for now. Over the next few weeks, as always, I'll be putting together my Cannespiration deck covering all the key trends and winning work from this year's festival, so stay tuned for that.

Big love,

Chris & the 42courses team x

p.s. If Cannes gave you the itch to make award-worthy work, our Advertising Masters course is taught by Cannes Lions-winning practitioners, and packed with the award-winning case studies to match.

Weekday Wisdom is a Tuesday habit from 42courses.

Bonus dad joke: how many creatives does it take to change a lightbulb? Does it have to be a lightbulb?

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