It can be hard to think of an excuse to visit the south of France on a company’s dime, but each year, thousands of marketers from around the world make the hard decision to fly there to spend time on the beach and drink rosé with their peers.

Attending Cannes Lions can come with a hefty price tag, depending on how much a company chooses to spend on its presence at the festival. So in 2023, what makes the investment worth it? We asked executives across the industry to share why they attend, what value it provides, what makes the festival unique compared to other industry events, and more.

Some of the value includes keeping a pulse on the industry. “Cannes is always an incredible opportunity to hear from marketers and hear from the industry, what’s on their mind, so that feedback loop is incredibly helpful,” Joy Robins, global chief advertising officer at the New York Times, said.

Other execs, like Nina Mishkin, director and head of Americas brand strategy at Snap, and Judy Lee, head of global brand experience and programs at Pinterest, also weighed in. Read more here.—KH

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If seven years is a dog year, then seven days is a Cannes year. Thinking back to earlier this week feels like an eternity ago. Since then, I’ve met some great people, eaten many finger foods, and watched people smash €29 drinks in the Carlton hotel lobby. It’s been quite the experience. Now I need a nap.

Yesterday I met Alvin Bowles, who’s in his third week leading Meta’s ad sales in the Americas, at a Meta press breakfast. I also spoke to Duncan Meisel, executive director of Clean Creatives, after the group quite literally pointed fingers (or, rather, signs) at Richard Edelman and other Edelman execs over the company’s continued work with fossil-fuel clients.

“We’ve been focused on Edelman because they do more work with fossil-fuel leaders than any agency we know of,” Meisel told me. “They have clearly changed some policy, but we don’t know how substantive that is, and they’ve also increased their work with companies that are doing a lot of damage. So we think Edelman, as a leader in the industry, has a special responsibility to lead on this.” (Edelman issued a statement to Ad Age in response to the protest, which you can read here.)

After a quick jaunt down the Croisette, I watched a panel with filmmaker Spike Lee and Shannon Watkins, global CMO of Jordan Brand, at Sport Beach, and then worked my way back up toward the Palais to check out the Wall Street Journal House, which frankly felt more like Soho House.

The hot ticket last night was TikTok’s beach party, which had lines to get in that rivaled those of Foo Fighters fans the night before. The general consensus, it seems, is that Thursday night is the last “real” night of Cannes, although I spoke with people who said they were peacing out by Wednesday. And then there’s me, who’s here until Saturday. Rookie mistake, I guess.

Even with some people gone, the energy was high last night, particularly among award winners, and I saw more than a few rosé bottles the size of a toddler being passed around. I also bumped into someone on my way out of the bar and realized it was Jameela Jamil.

This industry, man. We’ll see you next year!—KH

On Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission sued Amazon, accusing it of duping people into signing up for Prime, then making it difficult for them to cancel subscriptions.

According to the lawsuit, Amazon is alleged to have used “manipulative, coercive, or deceptive user-interface designs known as ‘dark patterns’ to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically-renewing Prime subscriptions.” The lawsuit defines the dark patterns as “manipulative design elements that trick users into making decisions they would not otherwise have made.”.

Three company executives in particular were named in the lawsuit: Neil Lindsay, SVP of health services, Russell Grandinetti, SVP of international consumer, and Jamil Ghani, Prime’s VP. The trio, along with other leadership, allegedly “undid user experience changes that they knew would reduce Nonconsensual Enrollment because those changes would also negatively affect Amazon’s bottom line,” according to the suit.

“Fittingly, Amazon named that [cancellation] process ‘Iliad,’ which refers to Homer’s epic about the long, arduous Trojan War. Amazon designed the Iliad cancellation process (‘Iliad Flow’) to be labyrinthine,” the lawsuit alleges.

Amazon hit back against the lawsuit. “The FTC’s claims are false on the facts and the law. The truth is that customers love Prime, and by design we make it clear and simple for customers to both sign up for or cancel their Prime membership…We also find it concerning that the FTC announced this lawsuit without notice to us,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement that appeared in TechCrunch and multiple other news outlets (and that Amazon emailed to Marketing Brew).

FTC Chair Lina Khan has waged several battles against tech companies since assuming the role in 2021. Under Khan, the FTC filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft earlier this month over its plans to acquire gaming company Activision Blizzard for $69 billion. Last year, it sued Meta in an effort to block the company’s purchase of VR developer Within, though the acquisition ultimately went through and the FTC withdrew its complaint.

The agency has also increasingly scrutinized the digital advertising industry in recent years. In March, BetterHelp paid a $7.8 million fine for allegedly sharing its users’ sensitive health data for advertising purposes.—JS

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

Trend alert: Check out YouTube’s Culture & Trends report, which digs into different levels of fandom, multiformat viewing, and the use of AI tools.

ShopTok: Get up to speed on TikTok Shop, the platform’s ecommerce initiative, which is expanding more widely after a test with some US retailers.

Signing off: Speaking of TikTok, read the note that company COO V Pappas sent to staff announcing their departure from the company.

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PLOT TWIST: Video marketing is about to experience its own canon event. MNTN VIVA combines top-notch generative AI tools with an intuitive editing environment that’ll get your marketing into the limelight. Check it out.*

Digest du jour: Cannes Lions 2023 has officially kicked off, and the world’s biggest brands aren’t wasting a minute. Check out our latest article to catch up on what’s going down in the French Riviera.

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Stories and interviews we’re jealous of.

• The Wall Street Journal wrote about the social media (and possible soon-to-be real-life) battle between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk.
• The Atlantic wrote about the compounding-error problem that could complicate generative AI.
• The New York Times dove deep into Reddit’s moderator revolt.