Well the BBH presentation got my attention with the best opening montage leading into a Cannes Lions presentation. But they opened up with Jimmy playing "All Along The Watchtower," so that would've gotten my attention anywhere, anytime. (Good choice.) But the montage also featured images and footage of all my favorites – from Jack Kerouac's "On The Road" to J.D. Salinger's "Catch In The Rye" with a Beatles "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" performance thrown in here and there. (Did I leave anyone out..) I get it, it's about creativity, right? Um, actually nope. BBH's Sir John Hegarty followed …

Now I know why most of these Cannes Lions presentations do have audience Q&A periods. I realized it when one of the audience members asked Nestle chief Paul Bulcke about the food industry's responsibility for healthy eating. As sensitive as that question was, I think Bulcke did a pretty good job of disarming it, acknowledging that food marketers have some responsibility in the healthy eating habits of their consumers, but noting that the problem is more "complex" than any marketer can address on their own. He said there are many reasons for the rise in obesity, for example, …

Two heavyweights – Publicis' Maurice Levy and Nestle's Paul Bulcke – are on stage for an important conversation about brands and creativity at the Cannes Lions, but hardly anyone in the press room is noticing. That's because they're huddled around musician and writer Patti Smith, who is giving an impromptu press briefing following the Grey Advertising panel she just participated in. I'm not sure what Smith is saying, because I'm trying to listen to Levy and Bulcke, and from what I can gather, they're talking about the "essence" of creativity. That essence, TK says, starts with the essence …

A team from Publicis and word-of-mouth marketing shop Contagious Communications made a case during a presentation at the Media Lions festival here this morning for a new 5% solution for the advertising industry - one earmarking budgets for new ideas and technologies not otherwise classified. The 5% concept is an allusion to a milestone reference developed by American agencies Ted Bates (now part of Publicis' Saatchi division) that advertisers and agencies should set aside that minimum percentage of their budget to invest in then-emerging medium cable television. But instead of media, they said, the earmark should go toward incubating new …

That's what the WPP chief said to Dreamworks' Jeffrey Katzenberg when the studio chief ripped the iPad he was using to read questions to the Cannes Debate panelists he was moderating. Katzenberg took a quick look at the screen and said there are some interesting "icons" on it and "an amazing amount of porn." "I hope this isn't yours Martin, because this is pretty sick," Katzenberg quipped.

That's right, the WPP chief is universally cited for coming up with the term "frenemy" to describe the role Google is playing in the media and advertising industry, but it turns out, he actually plagiarized it. When Sorrell asked News Corp's James Murdoch if Google was also a "frenemy" of News Corp. during the Cannes Debate panel, Murdoch said "That's yours, isn't it?"

Speaking during the "Cannes Debate" session at this morning's Lions festival, News Copr.'s James Murdoch said that the company does not view tablet computers as "the Web in your hand." Instead, he said News Corp.'s view is that it is "an incredibly new new stock" for newspaper publishers. Noting that it both cheaper for publishers and a better experience for readers, Murdoch asserted that tablet computers are leading to a "revolution in storytelling in people's hands." Asked by moderator, WPP chief Martin Sorrell, how that revolution is going for News Corp.'s newspapers, Murdoch said that nearly half of …

Now let me be clear, Dreamworks' Jeffrey Katzenberg started off by saying he is a huge fan of the Super Bowl telecast's advertising. In fact, he said he watches the Big Game exclusively to see the commercials, and gets up to get his "chips and drinks" when the game is on, not the spots. "I love it," he said during the Cannes Debate moderated by WPP chief Martin Sorrell. "I think it is beyond mesmerizing." For those people in the European audience who may be less than familiar with the game itself, Katzenberg provided some insight into why …

And the winner of the Cannes Lion award for "Press" goes to... …definitely not the festival’s press room “facilities.” Honestly, I’ve covered lots of conferences in my career, but I haven’t been to many where the technical set-up has been worse for people trying to cover it. It’s almost as if the Cannes organizers don’t want the press to cover it. Among other things, there is no wi-fi in the actual presentation rooms, which means any journalist hoping to cover the sessions “live,” must do so by watching it on a closed-circuit screen in the press room. That …

On the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of Madison Avenue's most inspiring figures – Ogilvy & Mather founder David Ogilvy – O&M released findings of a survey about the most inspiring places, people and things. You probably don't have to be a genius to figure out who the most inspiring person is, but he is: Albert Einstein. The most inspiring place is they Pyramids in Egypt. The most inspirational brand is Disney, followed by Coca-Cola and Google. The data, which was released as part of a presentation commemorating Ogilvy's centennial, featured author and creative …