Last week at the Cannes Lions Festival, the Creative Data Lion Grand Prix was awarded for a campaign titled “Efficient Way To Pay” for Consul Appliances by DM9 Sao Paulo, part of Omnicom’s DDB network. 

Today DM9 Chief Creative Officer and co-president of the agency Icaro Doria stepped down from his post after the agency acknowledged problems with the case study submitted to Cannes Lions to compete for the prize. 

Adage.com broke the story late last week of allegations that the agency manipulated video footage that was part of the submission.  

Cannes is formally investigating the case.   

On Tuesday DM9 issued a statement acknowledging missteps. “Last week, in the face of questions in the midst of Cannes Lions 2025, we immediately activated our team of creatives and mobilized to investigate the facts with transparency and responsibility,” the agency stated on its LinkedIn page. “We found that there were a series of failures in the production and sending of the videocase that accompanies one of our award-winning cases at the festival. For this situation, we want to register ...our apology.” 
 
The agency asserted that client Consul “had no relationship with the failures,” and that “Icaro Doria, as Co-President and CCO, takes full responsibility for the fact.” 
 
“We are taking the necessary and proportional measures, including improving our routines, reinforcing security in the agency's processes and strengthening the guidelines of our Code of Conduct, a document that guides behavior on several fronts and expresses our commitment to the highest ethical standards,” the agency statement continued. 
 
DM9 added that it would “establish an Artificial Intelligence Ethics Committee, with the participation of external and independent members from different segments, to establish guidelines, promote debates, and foster the responsible use of this technology.” 

It wasn’t immediately clear how far Cannes Lions was with its investigation. Officials there hadn’t returned a query for comment at deadline.