It’s that time of the year again when creatives across the world go crazy and giddy in anticipation of the winning works from the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. Trying to see if their creative appetite still predicts the winning works and remind themselves that jealousy is a great emotion.
(Un)fortunately, I am one of those creatives, but to be sincere, every time the award comes around, I am only reminded of an encounter that continues to shape my approach to people, creativity and life in general.
My Creative partner in crime Ayo Ishola and I were at Cannes Lions the year the legendary Marcello Serpa was being awarded the Lion of St. Mark- Arguably the highest honour of the creative industry.
While outside the Palais on the night of his presentation, we noticed an abomination of a scene- Marcello Serpa was being stopped by security that he couldn’t go into the venue because he wasn’t wearing a particular Festival Tag.
The interesting thing was how calm, graceful, charming and humble he was in the moment. He tried convincing the security personnel that he does have the Festival Tags, but it’s just not on his person at that particular time and he needed to be inside the venue for the ceremony. The security operative was not budging.
My creative partner and I boiled as we watched what was transpiring. Marcello-Freaking-Serpa, being gated? “What an insult to the gods of creativity” 🙂. We didn’t know when we sprung into action, yelling down the poor security personnel doing his job; “Do you know who this is?”, “You can’t be serious”, “ We are here because of him”.
Marcello was definitely surprised at our enthusiasm. He actually looked a little embarrassed by our overt way of handling the situation. 🤦🏾♂️
Seeing how we went on and on passionately, the security stepped aside for Marcello to make his way through, as he watched in a bit of fear and confusion as we sounded off. (Marcello quietly thanked him)
We then proceeded to FanBoy Marcello and got a few pictures with him.
A picture with the legendary Marcello Serpa
His humility and gracefulness is my ultimate lesson from the Cannes Lions Festival and I believe many more creatives really need to find humility. Given that, there are instances when we need to be the opposite of humble, but let’s never let it cloud our judgement and humanity.
The creative industry already has too many individuals with inflated egos, and zero empathy, affecting the future of the industry and the willingness to learn.
The negativity many creatives continue to exude in moments when they are absolutely unneeded is one of the many reasons why loads of young talents exit the industry.
So, to anyone that has made it this far in this little rambling down memory lane; “Be more a Marcello” 🙂
These were Marcello’s words when he got on stage to receive his award that night; “My life and career would be completely different, and probably a bit boring if Cannes Lions did not exist. Those small stairs to the stage are connected to me and I have always watched with envy and admiration as some creative legends stand at the top of them. I feel honoured, dizzy and extremely happy to be recognised as a stand-out within the industry. This award is like giving a shot of adrenaline directly into the ego of anyone in the business.”
P.S: if you don’t know who Marcello Serpa is, you are surely in for a treat. Google has all the amazing answers.
And Congratulations to the 2022 recipient of the Lion of St. Mark Colleen DeCourcy
