Day 3: See It Be It 2022
Day 03.
It was an incredible night.?
I got cleaned up, googled how much longer until I’d be fully sober again (about 2 more hours), meditated, and managed a croissant on our way out of the door.
The morning began with Madonna Badger and President of Badger Agency, Natalie Troubh , in “Running the Show: How to start an agency”. Madonna is not only the See It Be It Chair, but she’s an incredibly resilient and inspiring woman, pioneer of “Women, Not Objects”. She has fantastic vision, and the kind of determination that moves mountains. I absolutely loved hearing about how she set out on her own, with little more than a cash box, and grew every opportunity she could find until she had created a legacy.
By the time she finished her story, you could feel everyone’s questions burning electric in the air.
It speaks to both Madonna and Natalie that the questions didn’t follow any single thread – it became a group mentorship session, where we asked about our specific problems, our bigger questions, about womanhood, politics, and building better relationships. They graciously answered everything, absolutely generous with their time and experience, and we learned so much from a very honest discussion.
There’s a lot I took away from the conversation, but here’s a little bit for you, my imaginary reader:
? There is enough (business) for everyone.
? You’re not going to know everything, and that’s ok. Be vulnerable.
? Complacency is the cancer of creativity.
? If your team is struggling to meet your expectations, ask “What are you not getting from me?”
The talk spilled over our next session, and through lunch. Again, I’m so incredibly grateful that Kat was in tune with us, and when she saw how valuable the discussion was, she bent the schedule so that we could stay. Everyone was absorbing so much from Madonna and Natalie that we kept them for over two hours. One of the amazing staff members at Cannes helped Kat ferry food down from the terrace lounge, and we ate lunch while prospecting for wisdom.
After we finally let Madonna and Natalie go (to a sea of thanks), we met David Griner , Editor of Adweek.
David was another vital and completely practical experience; since Cannes, I’ve checked my notes from his talk the most often. His session was called “Make Them Talk”, about getting press for yourself and building your brand. I think this is something absolutely all creatives understand the importance of, and probably struggle with. Attention is everything in our business – even the obsession with awards boils down to getting that attention. After all, a good idea in your book is still good without any metal. But metal is how you get eyeballs on it.
His session was broken down with an editor’s eye, so it’s really easy for me to share with you now.
David’s Rules:
1) Everyone is your equal.
Never worship anyone. Not because people aren’t worth admiring, but because when you worship someone, you create a relationship where it’s impossible to converse as equals. Humility is fine, but be confident that you deserve to be in every room you’re in.
I like to be humble. Humility is how I maintain a “beginner’s heart”, where I’m giving myself ample opportunities to learn. But it gets in my way. Sometimes I’m so absorbed in making sure I’m learning everything, that I forget to share what I can bring to the table.
2) Never apologise (unless you’ve fucked up).
Don’t start an introduction with, “I didn’t go to ad school, so...” or “I’m only from Utah, so...”; never apologise for your background or lack of experience.
3) Use social media.
And when you do, talk the way you talk. Don’t try to keep your social media separate from your professional life, because it’s not. Use your platform to share your opinions, your thoughts, and yourself.
4) The worst they can say is no.
You can ask to write columns, join juries, speak at Cannes. Don’t wait for things to be offered.
I could go on about how relevant and important his advice here was, but honestly, I think it speaks for itself. So I’ll say that I’m taking it seriously. I’m writing. I’m posting. And I don’t know what I’ll ask for yet, but once I’ve figured it out, I’ll do that too. This was an incredibly useful and inspiring talk.
Next up, we walked to Bloomberg Villa, where David’s new business partners were about to launch their next amazing project.
I’ll take a little break here to say that if you’ve been reading since the beginning, you’re probably a little overwhelmed. You ought to be. By now, we were absolutely brimming with inspiring words, actionable advice, incredible experiences — and at this point I was starting to overflow. I had set out to absorb everything, and take in every second, but I began to worry if it was too much to ever sink in.
We were all starting to have these same feelings of “Am I taking in everything I can?”, and realising that we weren’t going to be able to go back home and do absolutely everything all at once. Some of this was advice we could use now. Some of it we could use later. Some would have to wait until the opportunity arose. It began to sink in that it wouldn’t all sink in at once, but that having had these experiences, no one could take them away from us.
Anyway,
The Bloomberg Villa was absolutely stunning. We walked through the foyer onto a stunning terrace, hemmed in by green and purple foliage, summer blooms, and a bright blue pool. Allie Steel and I got distracted by a couple of iced coffees, so that by the time we entered the tented area to find seats it was already crowded. We made our way to the edge, where the panel was blocked by a big fan pointing the wrong way from us, and settled in to catch a look at Ryan Reynolds.
We were here for the announcement of Creative Ladder, a non-profit organisation that would offer programs and services to bring undderrepresented perspectives into creative careers. Led by Ryan Reynolds, Dionna Dorsey Calloway, and David Griner, the initiative would build a pipeline to creative career paths to which many people from marginalized communities don’t have access.
I know the session was on the schedule for its celebrity factor, but every single one of us fell in love with the panel’s Dionna Dorsey Calloway (Co-founder Creative Ladder) and Wendy Clark (Global CEO Dentsu). They were fiercely intelligent, eloquent, and generous women, and we believed in their mission right away.
Danny Robinson said, “76% of non-white creative professionals didn’t even know this was a career when they were in high school”.”
I certainly didn’t. I’ve always felt it was a wild stroke of luck that I’m here, because where I come from, there are no creative careers. You could hustle and hope for the best as an artist, but we would have never known you could have a career, a solid future, as a creative. If I hadn’t found myself far, far from home, I would never have known about advertising. So I love the mission of Creative Ladder — we cannot hope for a diverse generation of people to just wander into advertising/production. We have to start with telling young people that this is even on the table, give them that open door to walk through.
We were buzzing by the time it was finished.
Our next stop was FCB’s yacht, for a private Q&A session with Susan Credle (Global CCO of FCB, who sat on the floor like we were a group of best friends, and flowed love with every word), and Tarana Burke (Activist and founder of the Me Too movement, whose undeniable fire and passion were tempered with such peace and self-love that we felt healed just listening to her).
We took glasses of prosecco, and even more water, and settled in for a conversation. It was a luxurious backdrop, but a sincere moment that really could have been anywhere. There wasn’t a specific theme to our talk, but my summary would be: women believing, and believing in, other women.
It was clear from the get that Susan is a huge champion of women. These days, there are a lot of people in the world who make room for women. It’s not the same thing. There are a few people, like Susan, who aren’t waiting around for a girl to show her worth. Instead, they see her potential, create an opportunity, and advocate and fight for and listen to that woman until she realises her worth.
If not for a woman just like that, I wouldn’t be here.?
You learn early on: No one hands out chances, you have to ask for them. But I had asked, and asked, and been told over and over (sometimes not kindly) to wait my turn, until finally I learned to keep my head down. It wasn’t until I met Anna Tomasetti, another champion of women, and for some reason I’ll never know, she gave me an unasked-for chance. I took it, both hands, and my life changed.?
Sitting cross-legged on the floor between Tarana and Swati, big fearless laugher and reaching out to hold the hands of the women beside her, it was clear that Susan is a life-changer. I know that the industry is better because she’s actively looking around for women who don’t even know how badly we need them here.
Tarana is pure fire, bottled in a woman who’s learned to protect herself and those around her with love and kindness. She shared her journey as an activist and advocate for human rights, how deeply personal her work is as a Black woman, and what we all knew: Me Too is an ongoing movement, a story we need to keep telling.
Almost all of us have a story where we were made uncomfortable or sexualised at work. Many of us have experienced real trauma, or even outright attacks, or know someone who’s survived them. It’s not at all easy to talk about, but once we do, there’s power in our shared experiences. There’s power in believing one another’s stories, and knowing that if we share, we will also be believed. That’s the potential of #MeToo.
The reality is: it’s not that easy.
Many women sharing their stories are still silenced, or worse, villainized. We’ll only see more of this after the Amber Heard case, where a still-patriarchal society will take the example of one woman and apply it to every woman across the world. The truth is, victims are still rarely believed, and the stakes for calling out your abuser are still too high for most women.
Many men called out for predatory behaviour are quietly let go, or the complaint is quashed because he’s “too talented” to lose. Both allow abusers to remain in the industry, climb through the ranks, and continue violating women.
As we shared together, it was clear that Tarana is right: Me Too isn’t a moment or a trend, but a conversation we’ll need to continue having, a system of belief and support that will always be ongoing. It’s a humbling thought.
Which is why we so appreciated her advice for self-love and self-care. Making distance between those moments where we’re trying to save the world, and where we need to stop and take care of ourselves. We can’t shoulder anything if we don’t take the time to heal.
Hearts full, we went to the Adweek 100 Event, where our incredible Katherine and her teammate Jackie Blaze were being honored as two of 35 creatives to watch. Drinks, great conversation, and more kickass women doing their thing.
We headed down to the awards show (tonight was Design, Film Craft, Digital Craft, Sport, Music, Industry Craft, Entertainment). I had no idea how long those lines to get in were — people queued for an hour beforehand, in the glamorously unforgiving French sun, waiting to get a decent seat.
Kat ushered us straight past the line, into the theater, to our reserved seating right at the front of the audience. Maybe it was a little thing, but it was a beyond-cool experience for us. The damn chairs had “See It Be It” on them, okay? That was us.
Watching the award winners was, no surprise, amazing. There was a really incredible selection that night, and some of the films (special shout-out to Penny’s The Wish by Serviceplan Campaign and Marcus Ibanez) brought me to tears.?
But it was gut-wrenching to watch the political pieces.
The Portuguese (Re)Constitution (Penguin Random House + FCB Lisbon),
Backup Ukraine (UNESCO/Blue Shield Denmark + Virtue Worldwide),
This is Not America (Residente + Doomsday Entertainment LA),
And even Black-Owned Friday (Google New York + BBH New York)
Ideas like these allowed creatives to express their pain and their hope on a global stage. In Hong Kong, we didn’t have that opportunity.
I looked down at my Cannes pass, where this year it said:
Anastasia Simone, Leo Burnett Hong Kong, China
And I was heartbroken.
At dinner, we gushed about the work we loved, the ideas that excited and inspired us. I told the other women about Hong Kong, and how watching the work had opened this hole inside me, where I knew meaningful work should be, had we been allowed to make it. I felt like a coward for leaving the city, for not trying to find a way to fight the universe with creativity, even if it meant putting my future on the line.
Sobbing, I showed them my pass.
Karo ripped the corner off of a green sticker, doodled ‘HK’ next to a smile, and stuck it under my name.
I know that I can’t do everything, and that no matter how much we wish it, there are a lot of ways that advertising can’t save the world. But I also don’t have to suffer in silence.?
If I can’t sell an idea to a client, I can still make it. And if I can’t make it, I can still talk about it. Over and over and over this week, I learned that there’s healing in sharing. Advertising is only one of the ways I can do that.