• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, June 3, 2014

Are you ready? Cannes is less than two weeks away. And as always, the industry is dripping with anticipation. And there are the usual lead-ups that bring even more to the festival. First, there's Decoded, which is out with Decoded Oracle -- a process that will use machine learning to analyze data from the last ten years of Cannes Lions, combined with present insights from social media, to predict the Cannes Lions winners. The predicted results, along with stats and analysis leading up to the award announcements, can be found here. The winners will be announced on June 17th. And then there's The Gunn Report, which has gathered together 20 films it thinks will win Lions. The publication wants people to indicate whether or not each film will win a Bronze, Silver, Gold, Grand Prix or no Lion at all. The top five guessers will get a free, one-year subscription to the pub.

J. Walter Thompson, in an effort to beef up its creative offering, has lured DDB's Matt Eastwood away to become JWT's new worldwide chief creative officer. He will join the agency in mid-July and report to JWT Global President Gustavo Martinez. Of the hire, Martinez said: “Matt Eastwood has everything I have been looking for in a global creative partner. He is a highly awarded creative with an international sensibility, living life as a New Yorker.” The move is part of Martinez's ongoing efforts to shore things up at the agency in advance of his expected appointment as CEO when Bob Jeffrey steps down in 2015.

Lee Clow is a legend. But how is TBWA planning its future post-Lee Clow? The WSJ's Nathalie Tadena spoke to TBWA President and CEO Tom Carroll who said: "Lee’s never really retired, I mean he works every day. It’s hard to replace Lee Clow. I think what our hope is that we have a lot of good creative leadership around the network… So you just have to keep bringing people up. A network has to have a lot of strong leaders in a lot of big markets, and I think we have that. And while Lee’s influence is important, he’s one guy. He’s semi-retired, but I talk to him every day so I don’t know how retired that is. What he is -- is he’s doing more of what he wants to do and that tends to be the bigger creative issues."

I guess we're just going to chalk this up to a cultural thing -- but if you read an ad agency help wanted ad for a "Medium-Weight Traffic Manager," what would you think? Skinny Minnies need not apply? Muffin-topped fatties should look elsewhere? The ad's job description reads: "Our client, a leading advertising agency based in Sandton (Johannesburg), seeks the services and expertise of a seasoned and skilled traffic manager to join their highly effective team ASAP. Digital experience is imperative." So we guess it's like, you know, medium skilled or something like that. Still, it's an odd choice of words .