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THE
Ban Ki-moon and the “Big Six”
take “Common Ground” in
support of the UN-SDG
U
N Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon addressed
the Lions Live audience
as part of The Cannes
Debate. He started quite lightly
and prompted the crowd to cheer
by citing the Cannes Lions Festival
of Creativity as the world’s biggest
gathering of mad men. The cheer
turned into laughter when he
said, “ You should see some of the
people I have to deal with.” On a
more serious note, he made a call
for everyone to help cr eate the
biggest campaign ever for humanity
in support of the United Nation’s
Sustainable Development Growth
(SDG) goals, “The SDG is the most
ambitious vision – and blueprint – to
make the world much better, leaving
no one behind. You can help make
these ambitious goals a reality.”
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adobo magazine | July - August 2016
Moon appealed and challenged
the group, which he hailed as
a gathering of the world’s best
storytellers, to simplify the 17
goals and 169 targets set to be
achieved by 2030, make it more
understandable and therefore,
actionable to more people. In
addition, he called on everyone
to make the SDG an inclusive
agenda among its stakeholders.
With Moon onstage were
holding company CEOs Yannick
Bolloré (Havas), Michael
Roth (Interpublic), John
Wren (Omnicom), Maurice
Levy (Publicis), Sir Martin
Sorrell (WPP). Tadashi Ishii
(Dentsu) pledged his support
through a video message.
After Moon’s challenge to find
a “Common Ground,” each of the
CEOs pledged their respective
group’s support to the SDG in
general and to specific goals which
they feel the urgency to focus on: IPG
on the availability of sufficient and
clear water, Omnicom on inclusive
and quality education, Publicis on
food (help diminish waste, eating
closer to where food is produced,
and more clever ways to share),
and WPP on gender-equality.
Sir Martin Sorrell ended the
session by mentioning that the
Cannes Young Lions have embraced
five of the SDGs and are running
a competition on how best to
communicate these goals. Sorrell
also asked for involvement beyond
the “big six” and summoned other
agency groups to focus on refugees
and immigration, and the issue
of separation and isolation.