Plus ça change? 🦁
This year’s PR Lions prompts familiar questions about agency recognition and new ones about how different perspectives are heard.
"Go where you’re celebrated, not tolerated"
This mantra, which recently came to my attention via CIPR president Advita Patel, is one that struck me on more than one occasion in Cannes last week. Indeed, it's one that is always worth keeping in mind when covering the fortunes of the PR sector across the Croissette over the years. Because, if there's one thing that has been in short supply, it's the validation that comes with being lauded on the same creative level as the adland agencies that continue to dominate the PR Lions.
Perhaps that recognition doesn't really matter. After the heroics of 2024, the PR world came back down to earth with a bump this year, winning a solitary Gold Lion in the PR category. But earned first ideas continued to lead the way across ever more Cannes categories, representing the ascendancy of the discipline at least, if not quite the industry that birthed it.
There are plenty of people who will argue that this is what truly matters. The marketing world has found itself inexorably drawn towards reputation and trust issues, and a publication of this name is hardly going to quibble about the success of earned first creativity. More importantly, the preponderance of PR activity across Cannes, from the mainstage to the fringe, reflects an industry that is considerably more secure in its footing, whether in espadrilles or otherwise.
