The ads include a poster with the words "Sorry. This poster is in Cannes" and a viral film with no soundtrack and simple white-out-of-black graphics, which also apologises, saying "This film is in Cannes". Both advertise the 50th International Advertising Festival, held in Cannes on June 15-21 2003.
The poster campaign, created by the Danish agency Robert/Boisen & Like-minded, will run in cities including Paris, London, San Francisco, Cannes and Copenhagen, and there is also a print element to the campaign.
Robert/Boisen & Like-minded created an earlier campaign for Cannes to encourage people to enter their work. It was based on the idea that some creatives, including the UK's Charles Inge, creative director of Clemmow Hornby Inge, had won so many Cannes Lions that they used them for mundane purposes.
Entries to the Cannes Festival this year were down by 5% on last year's numbers, although festival organisers have said that delegate levels are roughly in line with the same period last year. The 90-strong Chinese delegation has withdrawn from the festival over fears of spreading the SARS virus.
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