Letter from Cannes: The average pub

Another year, another Cannes. Fittingly for a festival where so much alcohol is consumed I’ve always seen Cannes as a little bit like the average pub.

There are some of your close friends there, some old friends you haven’t seen for a bit and there are one or two howling wankers.

But it mostly consists of strangers who you might chat to at some point when the odd glass of rose makes you lose your inhibitions. Like I said, a bit like the pub.

As the son of an NHS nurse I have no patience at all with the people who see going to Cannes as a chore. If you don’t like what you do, do something else. If you don’t like some people, avoid them. I’m sure someone else would happily take your ticket to spend a week in the sun on the Cote D’Azur. Stop your moaning.

The big theme this year was rightly diversity. Agencies should (and don’t currently) reflect the society they’re supposed to be talking to. We’re too white, too male, too middle-class and too damned YOUNG.

I was lucky enough to spend time with some smart folk trying to work out what to do about it, on a panel for Marketing and Monster.com. The Glass Lion was a start, the fact it was a frequent topic of conversation across the week was good too and this movement to surface all the female creative winners was very good – http://canneslionesses.com

Aside from that I got to spend a week talking about, and looking at, the thing that got me into the business in the first place, great creative work. And I got to have some very useful chats with network colleagues and a few clients too.

And it was a load of fun.

Sssshh, don’t tell anyone about that last bit.

Read more from Kevin Chesters in our Clubhouse.