Will you return from Cannes with the same job you had when you left? It's not a secret that Cannes Lions is a hotbed of recruitment with awesome talent from all over the world -- all in one place at the same time. What better time for one agency to poach talent from another? Mike Shields explores this in a "Wall Street Journal" column, writing: "Cannes is a hotbed of recruiting activity, so much so that agency talent managers and headhunters mark the week on their calendars, strategically plot out their days to ensure they meet with the best potential …

So David Hasselhoff was all the rage in Cannes on Sunday. He kicked off the festival at the Golin seminar touting HofforNot.com which launched June 14 and on which people could guess whether or not the image was, in fact, The Hoff or a look-a-like. Those at the seminar were asked to play the game live in the auditorium. The campaign saw 60 million uses of the #hoffornot hashtag from launch to the beginning of the seminar and another 24 million additional during the session. Relating it back to the session, Golin President Matt Neil said, "The campaign builds on …

Yesterday, we shared a leaked memo from Cramer-Krasselt, which noted it had decided to no longer work with Panera Bread. Now, Panera Bread has shot back, saying Cramer-Kresselt didn't fire Panera Bread -- rather, it said it would hold a review but the agency declined to participate. To be clear, the agency never used the words "fired" in its memo. It just shared how difficult it was to work with the client. Which, of course, is why it makes perfect sense they chose not to participate in the review. Panera Bread CMO Michael Simon told "Ad Age," "Cramer-Krasselt did not …

Well, this is rich. Cramer-Krasselt has resigned the Panera Bread account, claiming that the client is just too difficult to deal with. An internal memo reads: "There comes a time when no matter what the acclaim for the work, no matter what that visibility, no matter how good of a relationship we have with the marketing department, no matter what the test scores and results that contributed to reversing falling comps before the campaign and that outpaced previous work and became great case histories -- despite all that: the constant last-minute shifts in direction, the behind-the-scenes politics, the enormous level …

Okay, then. So here's why advertisers love TV so much and can't get enough of the Cannes experience. A new Millward Brown Digital study that polled 300 digital marketing decision makers at Fortune 5000 companies and agencies in the United States found that most of them allocate their budgets fairly evenly across digital advertising formats. However, 88% said that making emotional connections through digital media would encourage them to spend more on digital branding campaigns. And to that end, the survey also found that 30% of digital marketers believe that ads purchased through programmatic methods produce negative customer experiences that …

With Cannes Lions a week away, the usual debate surrounding the merits of the festival are making their annual appearances. The latest in the annual salvo of discontent comes from Avi Dan who, writing for "Forbes," asks: "Should Cannes Be Canned?" Cute, Avi. Cute. It's the usual tripe about how the awards focus too much on creativity and not enough on results and how Cannes "diverts attention from servicing the clients and building strong brands and, instead, much too often it's about self-importance." Well, of course it's about self-importance, Avi. Where else do you think the industry's creative babies are …

So that dude Dov Seidmen, who sued Chobani and its agency, Droga5, for supposedly stealing the brand's "How Matters" tagline from Seidman's work, is getting an earful from Chobani. Basically, Chobani said, screw you and issued a statement that reads: "We are disappointed that Dov Seidman would choose to challenge Chobani's use of its 'How Matters' trademark. Mr. Seidman's allegations are baseless and without merit. Chobani chose 'How Matters' as its platform because it represents what Chobani has always stood for, including its use of natural ingredients to make wholesome and nutritious food. Mr. Seidman does not own a trademark …

Good God! How much longer are we going to hear about the ADDY Awards? Oh, excuse me, I mean the American Advertising Awards. I thought the Cannes Lions lead-up was overkill, but the AAF has been milking this one for months. I guess that can be blamed on its three-tiered local, regional and national approach to things. Anyway, Publicis Seattle announced today that it was awarded five national ADDY Awards at the AAF's American Advertising Awards Competition. The annual award show and gala took place on May 31 in Boca Raton, Fla. Publicis Seattle came out on top with four …

Grey is not an ad agency. Say what? Yes, it's true. At least according to Papa John's VP of Global Digital Marketing Jim Ensign. If you weren't at OMMA Mobile during Internet Week, you might not have heard Ensign say: "We just hired a new agency. And we don't call them an ad agency -- they're a content agency." The pizza chain recently chose Grey as its agency and Ensign says: "We refer to them as a content agency, and that was the important part of the review." So if you want an ad agency, don't call Grey. But if …

Are you ready? Cannes is less than two weeks away. And as always, the industry is dripping with anticipation. And there are the usual lead-ups that bring even more to the festival. First, there's Decoded, which is out with Decoded Oracle -- a process that will use machine learning to analyze data from the last ten years of Cannes Lions, combined with present insights from social media, to predict the Cannes Lions winners. The predicted results, along with stats and analysis leading up to the award announcements, can be found here. The winners will be announced on June 17th. And …