Is Cannes Lions 2025 a watershed moment for awards?

Three awards have been withdrawn from Cannes Lions 2025 over fabrication of case studies and concerns around their legitimacy. In the weeks that have followed Cannes Festival of Creativity, the integrity of advertising awards has been questioned and what was once widely accepted in advertising awards, has now been exposed.

DM9's “Efficient way to pay” was the most notable withdrawal as it won the Grand Prix in the Creative Data Lions. The DDB agency was caught using AI to fabricate news coverage in the case study and misleading the jury. Two other DM9 awards were also withdrawn. The agency’s co-president and CCO Icaro Doria stepped down. Following the Cannes news, D&AD removed two pencils from the shop.

However, DM9 were not alone in the scandal as other awards have also since been questioned.

While the industry has been rocked by the news, many have acknowledged that embellishment, exaggeration and fabrication within awards entries is a common occurrence within adland. This episode features Campaign editor Maisie McCabe, deputy editor Gemma Charles and creativity and culture editor Gurjit Degun, who discuss what has led to this behaviour and what happens next for awards.

Cannes Lions has since responded with new "integrity standards" to ban agencies that submit "wilfully false" campaigns

This episode was hosted by Campaign's tech editor Lucy Shelley.

Further reading:

Adland’s ‘New Year's’ resolution should be to revive its integrity at Cannes Lions

LePub takes disciplinary action following scrutiny of Cannes Lion-winning campaign

Havas Costa Rica’s Cannes Lions-winning ad, Lessons of Shame, needs lessons of legitimacy

Havas and World Vision’s Lessons of Shame under scrutiny after Cannes Lions win

Don’t hate the player, hate the game

Cannes Lions rocked by controversies over AI, authenticity and licensing

DM9 admits faults in case study for Grand Prix-winning work

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