Final takeaways and confessions from Cannes. Plus, America's Hottest Brands: Monday Wake-Up Call

Welcome to Ad Age’s Wake-Up Call, our daily roundup of advertising, marketing, media and digital news. You can get an audio version of this briefing on your Alexa device; sign up here. What people are talking about today: Cannes Lions is finished for another year and most of the industry is either recovering or still making its way back home by plane (or, like Ad Age's Lindsay Rittenhouse, stranded in Switzerland after a missed connection.) Now that it’s all over, Ad Age’s Ann-Christine Diaz and I-Hsien Sherwood took time before they hit the airport to reflect on some of the big takeaways from Cannes this year. Among their conclusions: accessibility and inclusion were high on the agenda; Nike “Dream Crazy” wasn’t as dominant as it could have been; juries were keen to reward purpose and value-driven work; subversion also did well (and was apparent in stunts and protests along the Croisette). But finally, the one thing that was missing from the winners was “a good belly laugh.” Meanwhile, for another take on Cannes, read the fascinating “Confessions of a 49-year-old Cannes Virgin” written for Ad Age by veteran executive creative director Chapin Clark. His Riviera revelations include being approached for a business card while swimming in the sea and being pitched to while eating a snack on the Facebook beach. P&G goes beyond adsProcter & Gamble's Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard spent a lot of time at Cannes talking about alternatives to advertising and new ways to communicate to consumers, Ad Age’s Jack Neff writes. These included an Oral-B Sense toothbrush that uses sensors linked via WiFi to tell whether you’re brushing thoroughly and sends text reports to your phone, and an SK-II Future X store with a facial diagnostic center that computes skin age and recommends products. The company also told Neff that it’s about to release a follow-up to its award-winning film “The Talk,” titled “The Look.” It shows the looks of disdain or suspicion a black man encounters from white people at a restaurant, in a pool and in a store among other places, before he gets more approving looks as he enters a courtroom as a judge. But it's more than just a film: P&G has enlisted John Legend to talk about the film on Spotify and there will also be a virtual reality experience that lets people see what it's like to get "the look" themselves. Those final Cannes winnersIn case you hadn’t caught up with Friday’s news, the final Grand Prix winners included The New York Times and Droga5, which took the top honors in film, while Burger King took the Titanium Grand Prix for its “Whopper Detour” campaign via FCB, confirming its place as the campaign that took the most top honors at the Festival this year. Meanwhile, “The Last Ever Issue,” a feminist send-off for an ailing Polish porn mag by VMLY&R Poland, took the Glass Lion for Change Grand Prix. The Grand Prix for Good went to “Generation Lockdown,” a hard-hitting gun violence campaign from March for Our Lives and McCann New York, and the Sustainable Development Goals Grand Prix went to “The Lion’s Share,” a scalable fund to protect animals created by Clemenger BBDO. On the agency front, Omnicom was named Holding Company of the Year for the second consecutive year, while Wieden & Kennedy Portland was honored as both Agency of the Year and Independent Agency of the Year. Check out our full list of Grand Prix Winners here. America's hottest brandsAd Age unveils its new list of America's 20 hottest brands, with Adrianne Pasquarelli and E.J. Schultz reporting on what's sizzling in the U.S. in 2019. New eating habits are boosting the currency of the likes of meat substitute company Beyond Meat and vegan milk brand Oatly while the trend towards direct-to-consumer sees women's shaving brand Billie, shoe retailer Rothy's and fashion site Everlane included on the list. Looking to the next generation, several brands popular with elementary schoolers make the roundup, including Tik Tok and Baby Shark. However, some are definitely aimed at adults: for example, cannabis purveyor Sherbinskis. Just briefly:AT&T’s wizard move: AT&T is the first brand to ink a deal with the new Harry Potter augmented reality game, “Harry Potter: Wizards Unite,” writes Ad Age’s Garett Sloane. AT&T stores are being incorporated into the new Niantic game, which is being widely outed as the new Pokémon Go. Not guilty? In a radio interview with the BBC this morning, Facebook Vice President Nick Clegg said the company had found “no evidence” of outside interference in the 2016 Brexit vote and dismissed claims that Cambridge Analytica had influenced the outcome. You can listen to the interview here. Mars or the moon? SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was tweeting on Sunday that SpaceX is accelerating the launch of its rocket to Mars. However, he accompanied one tweet with a photo of the moon, causing much amusement on Twitter, reports CNet. Influencer embarrassment of the week: New York-based Instagrammer Marissa Casey Fuchs (@fashionambitionist) recently shared every moment of her marriage proposal and engagement online. But The Atlantic last week revealed a "deck" showing her story was pitched to brands months beforehand – and followers have started to mock her. If you're reading this online or in a forwarded email, here's the link to sign up for our Wake-Up Call newsletters.

Final takeaways and confessions from Cannes. Plus, America's Hottest Brands: Monday Wake-Up Call

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