June 22, 2018—The fiery energy of the day is helping you press on with projects you have in the works. Set things in motion now, Leo. Move out of the background and onto center stage. Your rocket is fueled and ready to take off. All you have to do now is ignite the engine. Use the power of your emotions to deliver a boost that will propel you to the stars.
Today started with the session Redefining Miss America in the Age of #MeToo, hosted by Y&R London. The session got into how the advertising firm Y&R is helping rebrand and restructure Miss America by ending the swimsuit competition and making many other changes to keep up with the modern times, while also making sure the integrity of tradition is maintained. The two speakers both emphasized how the pageant is a scholarship pageant and how it is more about the substance of the being of the women participating, rather than the physical attributes of the candidates. This, to me, begged the question, of how will Miss America and Y&R find a way to quantify “beauty” in order for it to be fair to all the participants of the pageant? Also, I wish they had done more emphasis on the kind of benefits of outreach that Miss America creates for future winners of the pageant because there was not much depth or insight into how the winners will better society.
The next session, The Strange Power of Confidence, hosted by SunTrust and StrawberryFrog was all about how to help people find confidence in themselves to create work and content that reflected belief in themselves and the brands they are working for. They emphasized that there are three steps to finding confidence: 1. Knowing what matter most to you 2. Getting educated by using the tools that are out there and 3. Forgetting shame and pride and leaning on a friend. The most interesting idea I learned from this session is “movements > advertising.” I find this really important with the climate that advertising has at the moment of creating social phenomenons to gain audience attention, rather than just another normal campaign trying to sell a product. From this session, I wish there had been more emphasis on how the importance of confidence has translated into the work of the speakers, and how advertising plays into the that confidence. I, also, wanted to know if maybe a lack of confidence is also good as well as a way to build perspective between great, good, fine, and bad work.
After this session, I stayed for the Sir Martin Sorrell in Conversation with Ken Auletta session, hosted by Sir Martin Sorrell, and it was the most uncomfortable session I went to amongst all the session I attended throughout the festival. The elephant in the room of Sorrell’s recent exit from WPP was on the minds of everyone in the audience, and Sorrell would not give any direct or significant answers of his indiscretions.
As an attempt to cleanse myself from the Sorrell session, I, then, attended the Can We Redefine Femininity with Creativity?session, hosted by Covergirl and Droga5. The panel discussed the juxtaposition between femininity and wanting to feel beautiful, specifically with the usage of makeup; they also discussed the rebranding of Covergirl to truly align with society. The SVP of Covergirl said, “When I look at ads, I want to see my version of beautiful that looks like me, so I can know I’m beautiful too.” From this, the integration of societal movement of geographical, age, racial, vocational, and gender inclusion into the core of the brand has really made Covergirl a more “every person” kind of brand. Something I wish the panel had covered is how Covergirl ends up deciding the representatives for their brand to go along with their message, because the faces of Covergirl are the most integral part of the brand. I, also, would have liked to have seen more of a discussion of why Covergirl encourages femininity over overall expression of self because there are “Coverboys” who also represent the brand, and the fact that they wear makeup does not technically make them feminine.
My last session of the day and festival, Parkland Survivors: The Real and Raw Power of Conviction, hosted by Insider Inc., was an incredibly powerful and call-to action panel. Something I thought was very interesting about this session compared to the rest of the session I went to all week was that no one had any technology out: no phones, no laptops, no cameras, no nothing. Not only were the speakers so compelling that the audience wanted to grasp every word, it also almost seemed disrespectful to be distracted from hearing their stories,making it an incredible note to end the festival on.
good sessions, thanks.
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