Prasoon Joshi, Josy Paul defend India’s poor show at Cannes Lions 2024

Cannes: Cannes Lions 2024 is about to end with just two categories left for which the winners are yet to be announced. India has a few shortlists in those two categories - Glass Lions and Sustainable Development Lions.

So far, India has won 14 medals with no Grand Prix, 2 Gold, 5 Silver and 7 Bronze Lions. Among the two Gold Lions, one is from Health & Wellness while only one is from the main categories.

To set the context, India won 13 Lions in 2015, 27 in 2016, 40 in 2017, 21 in 2018, 18 in 2019, 22 in 2020-21, 47 in 2022 and 24 in 2023.

Looking at the winning ratio or percentage for this year so far, it is highly likely that India’s tally will probably be lowest after 2015.

It is not only disappointing but kind of outrageous as well. On India’s poor outing at Cannes Lions this year, BestMediaInfo put up some searching questions in front of creative gurus from India – Prasoon Joshi from McCann Worldgroup and Josy Paul of BBDO India.

This is the first time that both Joshi and Josy sat together at Cannes to answer various questions arising from the falling number of medals at the International Festival of Creativity.

Rather than give away what both the advertising veterans said – which you should hear for yourself – we list down the questions we asked them.

Here they are:

1. Be it 2017 or 2022, when India crossed 40-mark, we went all ga-ga saying Indian creativity catching up. Indian tally was reduced by half in 2023 and a further half this year. By that logic, aren’t we moving in the backward direction?

2. Whenever we perform well at Cannes, we pat our back. In case of worse performance, we find refuge and console ourselves by saying we create advertising that works for clients and not awards. But traditionally, agencies create a few works keeping Cannes Lions in mind right before the festival. What kind of doublespeak is this?

3. We always complain about reducing margins, clients underpaying agencies etc. Still, the number of entries into awards isn’t affected even as the number of awards is reducing drastically. The understanding we have about winning at Cannes is that it helps agencies win business. But then, do we get complacent after winning businesses?

4. If we talk about inequality in GDP vs adex ratio in comparison to many developed countries, shouldn’t we talk about Winning at Cannes in the same ratio?

5. Indian GDP has made it to the top 5 nations. What will it take for India to match the pace of the economic growth the country is witnessing?

Watch the full interview: