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    First-ever client appointed as jury president of Cannes Creative Effectiveness Lions

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments864 Views

    Coca-Cola exec to lead judging as new three year eligibility is introduced and entries open

    LONDON --

    Coinciding with the opening of entries to the Creative Effectiveness Lions, Cannes Lions announced the appointment of Wendy Clark, president of Sparkling Brands & Strategic Marketing, Coca-Cola North America, as jury president.

    Launched in 2011, the Creative Effectiveness Lions celebrates award-winning creativity with a proven business impact and has an entry process involving close collaboration between clients and agencies to showcase both. Now in its 5th year, this will be the first time the jury will be headed by a client-side marketer rather than an agency leader.

    Wendy Clark is a widely lauded marketer and leading industry voice on evolved consumer engagement, known for leveraging the power of authentic brand stories to create shared value. Crucially, said Lions Festivals CEO, Philip Thomas, “Wendy is a passionate and vocal believer in the power of creativity to drive commercial success and be a force for good, which gets to the heart of what Cannes Lions is about. She is uniquely qualified to undertake the role of Jury President.”

    Clark said, “For clients, nothing could be more important than creativity that builds our brands and businesses, and the Creative Effectiveness Lion builds that bridge between creativity and effectiveness in a truly quantifiable way. In this sense, it should be considered the ultimate accolade in our business.”

    Changes to eligibility
    Shortlisted and winning work from the past three years of Cannes Lions is now eligible for entry in the Creative Effectiveness Lions, whereas previously only those entries from the preceding year’s awards were admissible. The change is made in response to industry feedback and recognizes that the business impact of outstanding creativity is long-term and can be proven over an extended period of time. As a result, shortlisted and winning entries produced between 1 March 1, 2011 to April 30, 2014 may be entered in the 2015 awards.

    Entries to the 2015 Creative Effectiveness Lions are now open and will close March 6, 2015.

    Tags:CannesCreative Effectiveness Lions



    Ex-OpenAI engineer who raised legal concerns about the technology he helped build has died

    Saturday, December 21, 2024
    Suchir Balaji poses for a photo in Hawaii in 2018. Balaji was a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who died in November 2024. (Balaji Ramamurthy via AP)

    Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26.

    Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He was well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI's strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products.

    "We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news and our hearts go out to Suchir's loved ones during this difficult time," said a statement from OpenAI.

    Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26 in what police said "appeared to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation." The city's chief medical examiner's office confirmed the manner of death to be suicide.

    His parents Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy said they are still seeking answers, describing their son as a "happy, smart and brave young man" who loved to hike and recently returned from a trip with friends.

    Balaji grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and first arrived at the fledgling AI research lab for a 2018 summer internship while studying computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned a few years later to work at OpenAI, where one of his first projects, called WebGPT, helped pave the way for ChatGPT.

    "Suchir's contributions to this project were essential, and it wouldn't have succeeded without him," said OpenAI co-founder John Schulman in a social media post memorializing Balaji. Schulman, who recruited Balaji to his team, said what... Read More

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