Wow. That's a stat to get your mind around for sure. And Google brand chief Andy Berndt just asked Eric Schmidt what he makes of it. It's a true projection, Schmidt said, but it's not the kind of information we historically thing about. It's mostly user-generated stuff – people sending texts, emails, photos to each other, etc. – not the kind of info you might get from a book, a library or even the professional media. Now that's a good thing for Google, because it makes search and navigation even more critical, but it isn't necessarily a good …

That's what chairman Eric Schmidt just explained to the Cannes Lions attendees. He did so at the prompting of Google brand chief Andy Berndt, who was then at BBH, the agency that created Google's Super Bowl spot. "And hell has frozen over," Schmidt said when he was presented with the concept, because Google had resisted the idea of brand advertising in lieu of practicing what it preaches: performance-based marketing. But that's not the end of the story. Schmidt said even after he and Sergei Brin and Larry Page signed off on it, they needed to get the Google …

Yes, that's a direct quote, but before you re-tweet it, he wants you to know he's joking – sort of. Asked about all the bad things that people do with the Internet by Google brand chief Andy Berndt during an interview at the Cannes Lions Festival, Google chairman Eric Schmidt, quipped, "It's always a shock to me that there are criminals using the internet. When we built the internet, we built it just for the legal people." Schmidt quickly added that he was being "facetious," lest people start spewing "140 characters into their favorite tweeting engine." His …

That apparently is what the IPG Lab team have been doing some research on during the Cannes Lions Festival. Instead of simply asking Cannes attendees which entries they like or dislike, the IPG Lab has installed a version of Affectiva's facial coding recognition system in the Microsoft Advertising Lounge to find out what people actually feel about the campaigns at an unconscious level that their facial expressions can reveal. The IPG Lab will even bestow a special Cannes Neuromarketing Award to the category winners based on the results. So if you're in Cannes and want to participate, stop by …

... I'm actually not writing about the Festival of Media, but about the Cannes Media Lions Festival. I'm guessing that things may have been a little too festive for me. Either that, or I'm quite jet-lagged and just a little bit spacey. So consider this a correction and future references will be to the Cannes Lions Festival.

That's what Cannes Festival of Media moderator Jack Myers quipped when panelist Pharrell Williams was talking about Apple founder Steve Jobs' ability to launch just about any project now – after successfully introducing the iPhone. "The guy can make macaroni now, and we'd trust him," Williams said, prompting Myers, head of the Media Advisory Group, to note that no matter what anyone says on the panel, "the headline tomorrow will be: Steve Jobs to make macaroni." Hey, why wait for tomorrow. Besides, he's already got the first syllable: Mac.

Actually, IPG Chairman CEO Michael Roth is looking over Martha Stewart's shoulder as she plays around with IPG's "Magic Window," the touch-sensitive technology that IPG's lab developed so that it could transform any glass surface into a full-motion screen.

Who would've thought that Digitas CEO Laura Lang and produce/musician Pharrell Williams would have so much in common, but as it turns out, they both agree about something important: That the future of music on Madison Avenue is all about connecting consumers to music they are passionate about. "They use our music whenever they want," Williams noted, about Madison Avenue's habit of licensing recorded music for background music in commercials. "They pay for it, but they use it." Williams, who was speaking on a panel at the Cannes Festival of Media, seemed to be suggesting that it has …

AOL and the IPG Media Lab just exhibited the results of a joint study testing the effectiveness of AOL's so-called "Project Devil" unit,s or what the Interactive Advertising Bureau calls "portrait" units. Not surprisingly, the research indicates they are much more effective than other online display ad units in terms of generating, "engagement, attention, emotional connection and influence." That insight was released this morning during the Festival of Media in Cannes, France, where IPG has had an extensive presence throughout the week. It is based on the results of a six-week study conducted by IPG and AOL. "While our …

That's the kind of stuff poet Sarah Kay is reciting during the last part of the SMG/TED presentation at the Cannes Festival of Media. I'm no poet, but it's a pretty good riff, and even getting some of the journalists to pause from all the lean-forward finger pecking to look up at the big screen in the Cannes press room. "I'm a poet, and I'm in the business of stories," she said after completing her first reading, and before going into her second.