CANNES — Adrianne C. Smith selected rigorously the hat she wore on Monday to open the fifth annual Inkwell Seashore set up on the sand on the Cannes Lions pageant.

Smith is the chief inclusion and affect officer at Fleishman Hillard, and he or she is the founding father of the Cannes Can: Variety Coalition (CC:DC). That group has labored since 2018 to make Cannes Lions extra inclusive by creating vital alternatives for rising stars from underrepresented backgrounds to participate within the occasion, which pulls greater than 12,000 attendees from all over the world.

The Inkwell Seashore set up makes an announcement with its placement alongside the row of media, tech and leisure heavy-hitters (Spotify, Disney, Meta, Amazon, YouTube, Medialink, Omnicom and plenty of extra) who erect elaborate constructions on the seashore slightly below Cannes’ famed fundamental drag, the Croisette.
This yr, Smith was not shy about sharing with attendees, retaining Inkwell Seashore going for a fifth consecutive pageant was a feat of dedication and tenacity. CC:DC and Inkwell Seashore are expressly designed to additional the ideas of variety, fairness and inclusive which have come below relentless assault since President Donald Trump returned to energy January.

As such, Smith’s custom-designed Inkwell Seashore baseball cap this yr includes a black crown with “Inkwell Seashore” in white stitched letters. The invoice, nonetheless, is manufactured from camouflage with tattered edges. That additionally makes an announcement that doesn’t want a lot rationalization.

On Monday, Inkwell kicked off 4 days of panel classes, Q&As, networking and wellness alternatives, together with morning meditations on the seashore. CC:DC helped organize partnership and sponsor help for a bunch of 30 attendees from underrepresented backgrounds to attend the pageant that runs June 16-20. The individuals embrace college students from HBCUs and mid-career professionals. The CC:DC additionally encourages extra creatives to take part within the awards competitors that Cannes Lions hosts for a spread of design, innovation and inventive classes.

The Trump administration’s zealous dismantling of DEI packages which have taken root in company and civic sectors in current many years was addressed head-on by Inkwell Seashore audio system.

“Variety, fairness and inclusion isn’t going anyplace,” mentioned Frank Starling, VP and chief variety, fairness and inclusion officer for Lions (which organizes the pageant), informed the gang on Monday morning.

Smith, who joined Fleishman Hillard in 2021 after serving as international director of inclusion and variety for WPP, credited CC:DC’s company companions with stepping as much as fund the coalition’s work and to sponsor the 2025 cohort. There have been some who wavered and a few who pulled again on promised sources and participation. However the work hasn’t stopped even within the face of Trump’s extraordinary marketing campaign. CC:DC’s supporters embrace such blue-chip manufacturers as Accenture, Eli Lilly and Co., Getty Pictures, Havas, Interpublic Group, Kraft Heinz, Nielsen, Procter & Gamble, TelevisaUnivision, TikTok, UTA, Wieden and Kennedy and Yahoo.

Smith took a second to talk with Selection on Day 1 of Cannes Lions as Inkwell Seashore’s early arrivers settled in for schmoozing, sea-gazing and no small quantity of perspiring amid a muggy warmth wave on the French Riviera. The Inkwell Seashore moniker is a tribute to the resort of the identical identify on Martha’s Winery that has been a trip vacation spot for Black households because the late nineteenth century.

You opened this yr’s set up by citing the robust good points in illustration at Cannes Lions which have been achieved via the work of CC:DC. How have you ever navigated the 9 months since Trump’s re-election? Have you ever felt a diminishment of curiosity, or participation from manufacturers?

In full transparency, it’s been an enormous shift. It’s been tough. We’ve had manufacturers that had dedicated, and per week earlier than they’ve mentioned “We are able to’t give all the things that we initially dedicated to.” In order that’s affected even how we get folks to take part. You already know, usually these are cabanas [Smith gestures to open space on the edge of the installation]. It’s nonetheless lovely and nice that it’s open, however they had been full workplace areas there [in 2024]. So we’ve seen lots of people who could also be hesitant to put money into the area or something that’s about DEI. And the fact is, sure, DEI is below assault. However [CC:DC’s work focuses on] the muse of the human connection enterprise, which is what I discuss. How can we construct relationships? How can we maintain our group’s profitability? As a result of stats have proven, the extra inclusive your work setting is, the higher your corporation goes to be.

So we’re proud to be right here. The truth that we’re nonetheless right here on this time — to have the ability to present up — is a win in itself. There are nonetheless individuals who imagine and who can decide to the work. They could not at all times shout it out loud, however simply the help right here will present you. Folks inform us “We don’t need Inkwell to vanish, and we’re dedicated to it.”

When somebody calls you to say, ‘I can’t ship one thing I promised you,’ how does that dialog go?

It’s all the things from “It’s been a funds lower,” to “We’ve needed to shift our course.” And I’ve additionally heard, “You already know, Adrianne. You already know.” Folks have been making an attempt to be as clear as they will, and we attempt to preserve it as actual as potential. Some organizations have authorities contracts that they don’t need to lose, and if it reveals up that they supported one thing which will even be perceived as one thing that’s going to be completely different from the mandate or dictate that has been pushed down, that they only need to tread calmly for now. And so they might say, “We’re not not dedicated. We simply need to wait to see how this factor goes to pan out.”

Pulling out to a wider view past Cannes Lions, the place do you assume the advertising and promoting sectors stand now on inclusivity? Are there areas the place you’ve seen extra progress than others?

Right here’s the fact of the work of variety, fairness and inclusion. It goes like all enterprise cycle. There are ebbs and flows of it, and there’s sure disaster moments that can push you ahead. So it expands and it pushes again. The secret is to be as in keeping with the work as potential. The secret is to be sure that throughout an unsure time you have a look at how are you going to pivot and nonetheless do the work. How are you going to make sure changes after which nonetheless do the work. How are you going to proceed to take a position as a lot as you possibly can and nonetheless do the work. You simply should be agile. If it’s essential shift a phrase, shift the phrase. If it’s essential shift the narrative or one thing, do it, however simply be sure that we’re nonetheless constant by way of the work that we’re doing. Throughout this time, you must study extra about who you might be and how one can stay steadfast in that dedication to who you might be.

We’ve seen in recent times a groundswell of Black-owned media shops, as digital distribution has helped stage the taking part in discipline for creators. Are you seeing an affect on Madison Avenue from the work achieved by Tyler Perry, by Charles D. King’s Macro, by Charlamagne Tha God and others?

I’d say the extra we collaborate, the extra we preserve a constant story going — that’s the affect. There’s a saying that an organized lie is stronger than the disorganized reality. The secret is to collaborate on the storytelling, as a result of that’s what’s taking place on the opposite aspect. The secret is, how constant can we be with our media and the storytelling in that media? How can the thought management that we put out be constant to be sure that we’re telling the story. We’re strengthening one another and we’re offering platforms for folks to talk. The cooperative economics factor — it’s a really actual second. If we discuss monetary spending on Black Media and Black communities, one factor that we all know now we have to enhance upon is how [Black consumers] make investments and spend our cash and ensuring that the greenback circulates inside our personal group greater than a couple of times.

Veteran journalist Roland Martin, who’s constructing a large TV information operation distributed through YouTube and different platforms, accuses the most important advert giants of participating in “financial apartheid” by ignoring shops resembling his Black Star Community. What are the largest hurdles to getting extra advert {dollars} flowing to Black creators and media?

After I began my profession, I used to be a media purchaser and planner. And right here’s the factor – if we’re not on that aspect of the desk, that’s the place the significance of inclusion must be. It’s a must to be on that aspect of the desk to have the ability to educate different media patrons and planners about the good thing about this media. As a result of what’s going to occur is that they’re going to do what’s conventional, what’s already within the pipeline to purchase, it doesn’t matter what story you inform. So the bottom line is, now we have to be there. We have now to be within the seats so we are able to have media patrons and planners perceive the dynamics and affect and affect of Black media.

Within the late Nineties, I recall with the ability to purchase Coronary heart & Soul journal. I watched different media patrons and media supervisors create a narrative in regards to the affect that one other journal model would have for a shopper. I assumed I might apply that very same system to Coronary heart & Soul. I did it, and we received the primary Kellogg’s low-fat granola advert on this Black well being journal. However in fact, as quickly as I left that seat, they most likely didn’t get one other media purchase. I needed to be within the seat. We have now to be sure that we’re strategically positioned in locations the place we could be on the desk and be dedicated to telling a good and balanced story about what alternatives will assist our manufacturers.

What are you specializing in this week by way of content material and discussions at Inkwell Seashore?

We’re grateful to be right here in yr 5. That is the season of AYA, which is that this yr’s theme. AYA stands for “adinkrahene,” symbolizing management, resilience and endurance in West African tradition. That is the right time for AYA. I didn’t understand after I created that brand that this could be a reminder for us to stay steadfast on this motion, as a result of it’s vital. Inclusion is vital, and we simply should be sure that it continues. We nonetheless want the help.

Our brand is a fern. And a fern can develop anyplace, in any situation — it’s simply so resilient. And that’s what we’re about, the resilience. This motion is about resilience. We at all times say when folks are available — ‘Welcome dwelling,’ as a result of it’s the inclusive area. We’ve modified what the Cannes Lions pageant appears to be like like. That’s what we’re about — creating area for our group. And simply because I’m from one group doesn’t imply I’m not supportive of others. So we simply should remind everybody that Inkwell gives that chance for us to study and trade nice concepts and simply grow to be extra highly effective than we’ve ever been.