here
If Cannes was The Dream, it certainly delivered. You could find its magic in the Old Town, perched above pastelcolored houses conjured straight from a medieval fairytale. It was in the glittering Mediterrenean sea and the yachts that adorn it like crown jewels. And above all, it was in the heart of the seaside boulevard, the Palais des Festivals, host of the famed film festival and the Cannes Lions. For anyone in creative communications, walking the Palais’ red carpets is a career high. For journalists, the eightday festival is the coverage of a lifetime. Cannes is, quite essentially, how you know you’ ve made it. words MATTHEW REYSIO-CRUZ
After four years of studying journalism, I was set on pursuing a career in investigative reporting. But in the middle of my last semester, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, where I was a scholar, extended to me the opportunity to apply for the Michael Konig Young Journalist Bursary.
Plunging headfirst into the uncharted world of business reporting, I decided to go for it.
Two months later, I found myself on a 19-hour journey from Manila to the south of France, chosen as the program’ s very first recipient.
Seated at the front row, I watched as the coveted gold and silver lions were handed out on the first of the festival’ s awarding ceremonies, for the categories of Health and Pharma. I was entranced by the wealth of brilliant ideas. Never before had I realized the true power of creativity, and that mere creativity can actually be, or already is, life-changing.
I witnessed my first Lions press conference. Aside from the rush of getting the list of winners hours before anyone else, the real treat was having each jury president up front explaining how they chose the winner of their respective category’ s Grand Prix, the top prize. There was outdoor retailer REI that promoted itself using the biggest anti-promotion: shutting down during Black Friday, and encouraging people to spend time outside. There was Sweden, which created its own national hotline in celebration of free speech. There was a tea brand that used music to battle transphobia in India.
At the heart of it, Cannes honors the value of great ideas, even coming from the simplest of insights, as catalysts that can motivate, inspire, and impact culture and society. Not only is creativity the ultimate differential between a good and great business solution: it can transcend anything from industries to national borders.
I came to realize that the creative industry and journalism share a very common thread: important, innovative, and compelling story-telling.
Storytelling is a universal language that we should continue to find ways to both master and re-define, which was to me the underlying insight behind everything I witnessed at Cannes.
And as a journalist, the chance to tell their narratives was a true adventure, the story of a lifetime.
July- August 2016 | adobo magazine
73