'Creativity' now has a much bigger canvas: Dentsu's Farishte Irani

Cannes Lions 2023, the champion of creative excellence in advertising, kicks off on June 19 this year and the Indian ad land will be closely watching this year's fest since 13 of the industry's creative bests have been chosen to grace the jury. 

In the Cannes Lions 2023 Jury series, e4m spoke to Farishte Irani, Group Head - Copy, Dentsu Creative, who is one of the 13 jury members for the event this year. Irani will be looking after Print & Publishing Lions.  She spoke about creativity, and innovation and how she is looking forward to being jealous of other creative minds.   

Apart from creativity, Irani touched upon the fascinating use of AI, inclusivity and woke-washing, judging parameters for her and many more.

Edited excerpts:

With 13 Indian creative leaders as jurors on Cannes Lions this year, how do you the world has been perceiving the Indian ad industry?

I think the number of jurors reflects the sheer depth of creativity that exists in India – a kind of creativity that only someone who has grown up in the country can possess. India was always a country that did great purpose-driven work and campaigns that focussed on social issues. But now it’s being perceived as a country that breeds a unique perspective amongst its creatives. We understand purpose-driven ideas, but we've also learned how to avoid inauthentic work. The diverse culture and the innovative ideas that stole the show at Cannes last year have made India the market to look out for. 

How has the definition of creativity changed over time?

I don’t think the definition of creativity really has changed – creativity has always been something that pushes the industry forward. Back in the age of old-school advertising, it was perhaps beautifully crafted or innovatively placed print ads. Now creativity is still something that pushes the industry forward, except the mediums and asks have expanded. We've started looking at inclusivity, innovation, and digital/AI integration. 'Creativity' now has a much bigger canvas, but if you can be a good creative in 2023, you’d also probably be a good creative in 1973.

What constitutes a winning campaign? What criteria will you keep in mind?

I honestly don’t really have a checklist for a winning campaign; good creativity, for me, is still largely intuitive. For me, a winning campaign is something I instinctively fall in love with. Maybe it's so ridiculously fun, you wonder how the brand approved it. Maybe it's something that made you smile. Or execution that actually moves the industry forward and sets the tone for what's to come. My main metric for a winning campaign though is, 'How jealous does this make me?' The more jealous a campaign makes us as creatives, the better it is.

Have the judging parameters changed over time or from last year?

I think the parameter has always been excellent creativity, regardless of how that manifests. We do have guardrails in place as jury members, but like I said, authentic, excellent campaigns stand out regardless of the parameters. As jury members, we do keep an eye out for work that feeds into unfair biases, propagates a problematic ideology, and doesn’t try to force wokeness or technology into the idea – at the end of the day, every idea and execution needs to make sense in the brand universe. We've also started focusing on the effectiveness of the work, because a good campaign has to work for the brand and bring actual results. 

Will parameters like inclusivity and diversity gain brownie points, especially when many brands have been accused of woke washing?

Purpose-driven work is always great, but it HAS to be authentic to the brand. But no, it doesn’t gain brownie points. All of us want to create work that matters - sometimes it's a social issue that relates to us personally, and sometimes it's a brand-first campaign that has actual business impact. 

What are you expecting from this year's Cannes? 

I'm expecting work that makes me jealous. Campaigns that I'll go back to for inspiration myself. Most of all though, I'm expecting to learn and grow as a creative. Experiences like these make you question your biases and really listen to fellow jurors from different cultures. Honestly, I'm there to celebrate great creativity, not critique it.