Cannes Just Can't Stand Cheaters

Plus, the FTC's latest rule is DOA

July 18, 2025

Welcome to The TV Room. Your weekly digest of television, streaming, and digital media insights that matter.

This week we're covering:

  • 🦁 Cannes Lions Wants AI Out in the Open

  • 🍰 Streaming Almost Takes the Cake in June

  • 🎥 Creative Spotlight: Heinz: “Lost in Love”

  • ✂️ Click-to-Cancel Just Can’t Cut It

Cannes Lions Cracks Down on AI Creative

Cannes Lions is implementing stricter rules for its prestigious advertising awards following the DM9 scandal at this year's festival. The organization unveiled "Global Integrity Standards" on July 10th, threatening three-year bans for companies that deliberately misrepresent their work.

Enter a brave new world

The changes come after DM9's Creative Data Grand Prix was revoked when organizers discovered the entry contained AI-generated and manipulated content. This controversy exposed serious gaps in the festival's vetting process.

One juror, Ndeye Diagne from Kantar France, revealed she had reviewed approximately 400 submissions over a 60-hour period without any training on detecting AI manipulation.

So what are the new rules?

The overhaul aims to restore trust and accountability in the awards process. Here’s what’s changing:

  • Dual Sign-Off: Every submission now needs approval from both a senior marketer at the client brand and a business leader from the entering agency. Brands and agencies share responsibility for every claim.

  • Tougher Vetting: A two-tier system will combine human review with AI analysis to fact-check entries. Juries get backup from independent data specialists to verify impact and effectiveness.

  • Serious Consequences: Deliberate falsehoods can get a company banned from the awards for up to three years. Trophies can be revoked at any point, even after being won.

Jurors have described the pressure of judging hundreds of entries in just a few days, often without specific training on how to spot AI manipulation. The new rules introduce an independent Integrity Council to handle sensitive cases and a public annual audit to keep the process transparent.

Cannes Lions is betting that these changes will keep its prizes meaningful as technology and creative tactics evolve. For agencies and brands, the message is clear: credibility isn’t optional, and the industry’s top award just got a lot harder to win.

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TV Industry Updates

  • Streaming surge: Streaming captured 46% of all TV viewing in June, with Netflix devouring the largest share of growth.

  • 5G goes prime time: Fox Sports announced a private 5G network to power its MLB All-Star Game coverage, enabling over 140 wireless comms packs.

  • Pharma fallout: A bipartisan push to rein in prescription drug ads is threatening over $6 billion in linear ad revenue.

  • Affiliates push back: CBS affiliates pressed the FCC to attach conditions to the Paramount-Skydance merger that would give local stations more leverage.

  • New voice, new vibe: Mercedes-Benz handed the mic to Lucy Liu, ending Jon Hamm’s 15-year run as the brand’s voice.

  • Sabotage spike: Charter Communications labeled a string of broadband network attacks in Missouri as domestic terrorism.

Creative Spotlight: Heinz: “Lost in Love”

Heinz’s “Lost in Love” campaign captured the irresistible pull of flavor with a TV ad featuring a tennis fan so fixated on his ketchup-covered hot dog that he misses the entire match.

The Details:

  • The hero spot used visual comedy and emotional storytelling to show a man completely absorbed in his Heinz moment, oblivious to his surroundings.

  • The campaign balanced humor and brand messaging, reaffirming Heinz’s core brand truth: superior taste that stops everything else.

  • “Lost in Love” appeared across TV, social, and out-of-home placements, timed to coincide with summer sports and peak sauce season.

What We Loved: The ad’s strength came from its simple, universal premise: showing the product’s sheer irresistibility through a single, relatable human moment.

Marketing Mix

  • FTC’s click-to-cancel rule implodes: A federal court struck down the FTC’s new “click-to-cancel” rule just before it took effect.

  • GLP-1 aftershock: Weight-loss drugs like Ozempic are upending consumer behavior far beyond food, shaking up alcohol, apparel, gyms, and even airlines.

  • AI backlash: Content that feels AI-generated, even when it’s not, slashes reader trust by nearly 50% and drops purchase consideration for adjacent brands by 14%.

  • Olipop revives ‘90s soda love: The new “Soda Stories” campaign channels nostalgia, with celebrities sharing how Olipop brought them back to soda.

  • Colonel’s comeback gets gritty: KFC’s “comeback era” features a scowling Colonel Sanders and a bold challenge to win back diners.

  • Prime Day becomes a marathon: Amazon stretched Prime Day to four days, turning deal-hunting into a waiting game.