The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity will honor groundbreaking agency creative Marcello Serpa with the Lion of St. Mark at this year’s Festival.
“The Lion of St. Mark recognizes individuals who have made significant and outstanding contributions to creativity across our industry,” said Philip Thomas, CEO, Cannes Lions. “Marcello’s achievements are known the world over, but perhaps most notably he was responsible for taking home Latin America’s first Grand Prix in 1993. He’s since served on juries four times, twice as president, and during his tenure, AlmapBBDO won Agency of the Year three times.”
After successes at GGK, DPZ and DM9, Serpa moved to AlmapBBDO in 1993, where together with José Luiz Madeira, they brought the agency out of deep decline and built it into one of the most successful agencies in São Paulo. Over two decades later, Serpa is recognized as the most awarded art director in Brazil, having won more than 160 Lions. His Grand Prix-winning work has included the 1993 print campaign for Guarana and the 2010 print campaign for Billboard–”Britney,” “Eminem,” “Marilyn,” “Bono” and “Amy.”
Thomas recalled, “My strongest memory of Marcello is when he was president of the Press Jury in 2013–as the Jury introduced themselves one by one, they were clearly more honored to have him as their leader than they were even to have been chosen for the Jury in the first place. He truly epitomizes what this award stands for.”
Speaking about the award, Serpa said, “My life and career would be completely different, and probably a bit boring, if Cannes Lions did not exist. Those small stairs to the stage are connected to me and I have always watched with envy and admiration some creative legends stand at the top of them. I feel honored, dizzy and extremely happy to be recognized as a stand-out within the industry. This award is like giving a shot of adrenaline directly into the ego of anyone in the business.”
Serpa will be presented with the Lion of St. Mark during the awards ceremony on Saturday, June 25. The Cannes fest will take place from June 18-25 in Cannes, France.
South Korea fines Meta $15 million for illegally collecting information on Facebook users
South Korea's privacy watchdog on Tuesday fined social media company Meta 21.6 billion won ($15 million) for illegally collecting sensitive personal information from Facebook users, including data about their political views and sexual orientation, and sharing it with thousands of advertisers.
It was the latest in a series of penalties against Meta by South Korean authorities in recent years as they increase their scrutiny of how the company, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, handles private information.
Following a four-year investigation, South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission concluded that Meta unlawfully collected sensitive information about around 980,000 Facebook users, including their religion, political views and whether they were in same-sex unions, from July 2018 to March 2022.
It said the company shared the data with around 4,000 advertisers.
South Korea's privacy law provides strict protection for information related to personal beliefs, political views and sexual behavior, and bars companies from processing or using such data without the specific consent of the person involved.
The commission said Meta amassed sensitive information by analyzing the pages the Facebook users liked or the advertisements they clicked on.
The company categorized ads to identify users interested in themes such as specific religions, same-sex and transgender issues, and issues related to North Korean escapees, said Lee Eun Jung, a director at the commission who led the investigation on Meta.
"While Meta collected this sensitive information and used it for individualized services, they made only vague mentions of this use in their data policy and did not obtain specific consent," Lee said.
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