# @diaryofmu on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DaijeRPB57t
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/67754645-diaryofmu-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/2390bdf101.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-07-08T17:16:25.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Mu Tunc (@diaryofmu) — https://gondola.cc/diaryofmu

## Caption

The big elephant in Cannes Lions this year wasn't that #creators are taking over.

I saw a hundred year old industry quietly dying in the most beautiful town in France. And almost nobody naming it.

I lived both sides of this story.

In 2008 I was a 21 year old intern at a legendary agency named Lowe.

Inside a hall, five of us were creating ten ideas a day. For three months straight. With nothing but our minds.

A true hunger games meets Cannes Lions situation.

In the first week, one kid literally threw up and quit.

I stayed. But at the end of the three months, I found myself crying in the toilet to my dad about how harsh it was. Thinking I was doing horrible.

The same day, they brought me my first business cards with my name written on them. Meaning they accepted me.

When young creatives won a Lion back then:

- They read your name in the Palais
- Took a horrible group photo
- Sent you back home without even a dinner

No applause. Most of the time, not even a bonus.

The agencies collected the awards, the revenue and the reputation.

The young minds collected a tiny memory.

By 2010, I was at McCann as digital growth officer. The first person to carry that title there.

We were telling everyone digital would take over everything.

And we were still treated like a side project.

That is why this year felt like a verdict.

My entire stay in Cannes, not one person introduced themselves from TBWA, Publicis, Ogilvy, Leo Burnett or McCann.

If those names mean nothing to you, that is not your ignorance.

That is the outcome.

The legacy agencies created this gentrification of creativity themselves. 

They collected their chips for fifteen years, adapted to nothing, and lost people like me along the way.

Creators are not taking over.

Creators and tech companies are filling the space that ignorance left empty.

In Cannes I met great minds like sophiaamoruso and 
kiser_barnes to sammicohentalks , shwinnabegobrand and eugbrandstrat .

None of them under a legacy agency. All of them brand builders and lovers in their own sense. More on them very soon.

Tech ate the agencies.
Creators got the applause. 

And for the first time, #canneslions became cool to me.

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 58
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## Tags

canneslions, creators

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