The fifth and final day of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is here.

The fifth day is usually quiet, so expect fewer updates from the team today. But we do have some hopes in terms of adding to the metal tally as the Film Lions winners will be announced later today. Go Enormous and Fundamental!

The day started with a smashing session from the unapologetic Cindy Gallop, founder, MakeLoveNotPorn. She spoke about her career learnings, shared advice, and also stated how she was lucky enough that she wasn't sexually harassed at an agency to an extent that she had to leave it. Read more from the session here.

Elsewhere, Tejali Shete, founder and CCO, Roll Dot Agency (UK and India), shared her experience of being on the shortlisting jury for the 'Outdoor Lions'. She believes Indian agencies need the courage to back sharp ideas and the rigour to make sure that the idea has a business result attached to it, not as an afterthought, but as the brief.

Rudrani Bose and Payal Mehra from ITC, won Bronze in the Young Lions marketer category. Read more about their win here.

Next on the agenda was an inspiring session where industry leaders, including Chaka Sobhani, global chief creative officer, TBWA\Worldwide, Pelle Sjoenell, most recently worldwide chief creative officer at Droga 5, and Monique Nelson, executive chair, UWG, shared personal stories of triumph and transformation through creativity, and tips to fuel innovation,that pave the way for a future where creativity is the driver of progress. 

Sobhani, a first-generation Iranian immigrant from UK, shared her journey from directing music videos to advertising, highlighting her work with McDonald's, including the ‘Raise Your Arches’ and ‘Olympic Curry’ campaigns. 

“I wanted to talk a little bit about the brand I've worked on the most over my career - McDonald's. I've pretty much worked on it for like over 10 years now,” she said, going on to talk about three campaigns – ‘Raise Your Arches,’ ‘Winter Takes on Color’, and ‘Olympic curry.’ “They are genuinely the greatest clients. They are proper partners,” she emphasised about the American multinational fast food restaurant chain.

She also stressed the importance of understanding human psychology, mentorship, and collaboration in advertising, while discussing her role as president of the Titanium Jury. 

“The wonderful thing about Titanium is the fact that the categories are obviously fantastic, but we get the absolute privilege of being able to see every single different type of work, whether it's activation, whether it's experiential, whether it's social causes, whether it's tech enabled, whether it's commerce, literally the whole gamut, so in a way it's almost like the purest definition of creativity, because you are literally judging oranges and giraffes, but you're looking at the heart of what is the creative idea,” said Sobhani.

Nelson took to the stage next to emphasise the pivotal role of culture in shaping human experience and creativity. She highlighted that culture evolves in response to human needs and values, often emerging from subcultures before mainstream adoption. 

“We have arrived at one of the most interesting cultural moments in history. Technology and artificial intelligence is accelerating every level, is becoming faster, and yet culture is telling us to slow down. People are back outside seeking community, reaching for human connection in a world optimized for convenience. People are searching for meaning in a world flooded with content. People are searching for creativity in a world powered by technology. People are searching for humanity,” asserted Nelson.

Next to share his journey was Sjoenell. Recollecting the moment in his life when he realised what he wanted to with his life, he said, “When I was 13 years old, I walked into this cinema and video rent VHS tapes in there. And in there, what happened right before the movie was that I saw a commercial, I saw Levi's Laundrette made by BBH. It changed my life completely. I was sitting there, and I wanted to be in it, behind it, around it, whatever it was that was that was for me. And from 13 years old, I was dead set on this is what I'm going to do with my life.” He further stressed the need to foster relationships and mentors to drive creative success in advertising.

At the Terrace Stage, a session 'Silence to Greenshouting: A creative lab for what comes next', discussed how can we align creative ambition with business reality and public accountability in today’s campaigns.

The speakers included Tracey Lee, strategic advisor, Creatives for Climate; Laura Ranzato, executive director, Clean Creatives; Harriet Kingaby, co-founder and co-chair; Conscious Advertising Network; and Chris Verrijdt, head - communications and community impact, B lab Europe.  The panellists sat down with the audience to talk about creating work that holds up - creatively, commercially, and credibly - under today’s heightened expectations and scrutiny.