Cannes Diaries: Pallavi Chakravarti skewers jargon that hijacks Cannes Lions conversations

New Delhi: Today, let’s take a closer look at words that recur in every other news article related to Cannes Lions, all over the world: insights, themes, and trends. These heavy-duty words are lobbed at unsuspecting industry professionals in the form of questions that make even the most seasoned ad men and women smile tentatively and sneak a furtive peek at their notes.

Truth be told, our hearts sink when we hear the words: “What themes and trends have emerged from the work this year?” “What insights can you offer?”

Let me give you a few honest (maybe too honest) examples of possible answers that run through people’s minds when told to respond to this.

“How can I sound intelligent pro max, and like I really know what I’m doing” is perhaps the most common. It’s self-explanatory. If you’ve ever been asked such a thing, you know you’ve tried this.

“Umm… didn’t I just hear someone answer this yesterday?” is a close second. When this is one’s default response, one starts to pick up bits and pieces of information that may have been gleaned from various sources over the course of the festival. If you heard a dude say, “I think minimalism is making a comeback” while sipping on a glass of white in a bistro, you will proceed to say exactly that after a moment’s pause—like you just came up with it yourself. Alternatively, you could blatantly parrot what Jury Presidents have said in their press conference speeches and fervently hope that the journalist asking you the question wasn’t attending those.

Lastly, “Maybe I can just make a sentence that uses AI” is a failsafe. Artificial Intelligence is the patron saint of such answers in 2025. You use those two magic letters as you look the interviewer in the eye, and voilà, all is well. People will acknowledge you as the cutting-edge maestro that you are, convinced that your safe hands can cradle the industry as we move forward into uncharted waters. It’s not a coincidence that the talks and sessions with AI in the title have the longest queues when doors open. I’m thinking I will make it a part of all my sentences too, in order to appear sharp as a tack.

In my opinion, the reality of what trends, themes, and insights are is somewhat less romantic and more simplistic than the jargon that spills out when people are asked about them.

Allow me to give you an example. When ‘Fearless Girl’ swept award shows in 2017, a one-word trend emerged: statues. When 2018’s award season rolled around, one out of three entries had statues in them. Everyone and their uncle had an idea that involved statues. Big statues, small statues, white statues, black statues, reflective statues, broken statues. It is my sneaking suspicion that statues surpassed television as the most sought-after medium of communication that year.

To sum up, here’s a trend we should all try and follow. It may sound simpler and far less impressive than a response like, “I think this is the year that data-driven creativity and technology are blending to create an exponential delta that produces effectively transformational solutions bringing disproportionate results to brand and business,” but it’s worth a shot, I think.

Do good work, answer the brief, persuade your target audience, make them feel something, think something, do something. The rest will take care of itself.

And to all our friends in the press reading this—do consider asking this question of us industry-wallahs less frequently. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but most of our answers are in the realm of gobbledygook, AI.