“Everyone hates advertising, let’s be honest.”
That was the extremely unCannes sentiment uttered by Chris Bellinger, Chief Creative Officer PepsiCo Foods US, at a press event held at the Google Beach in the French Riviera earlier this week.
Bellinger’s comments might have been intended to stir the pot (Pepsi runs an awful lot of advertising). But his point was that in 2026, brands like Pepsi have to shift their thinking from crafting and pushing out messaging via TV ads, to working with creative in a way that “brands are along for the ride,” and are “at the back end of the conversation.”
That is pretty radical thinking for an industry known for touting its mastery of storytelling, and it’s ability to drive culture. Bellinger’s POV may be somewhat skewed (he’s a social marketing aficionado after all) - but it’s a statement nonetheless.
Particularly as the TV ad industry scrambles to remain relevant, while also appealing to a newer breed of advertisers. Case in point - Walmart’s $1.4 billion acquisition of Vibe. (Vibe has a billboard near the Palais in Cannes. Guess it worked).
It’s hard not to contrast the creator-first sentiment at Google Beach with the vibe during an event at the OpenAP villa later in the day, where TV advertising practitioners implored brands and agencies to embrace more collaboration, so that big media companies can better compete with the tech giants.
“We have to work together,” said Lisa Herdman, Chief Enterprise Integration Officer, RPA. “We just have to.”
A big focus at the OpenAP villa was TV’s need to come together around common ways of executing targeted ad campaigns - a driving force behind the recent announcement that nine different media companies, ranging from Hallmark to TelevisaUnivision to NBCUniversal, are collaborating to make it easier for brands to track attribution.
Many of the executives spoke with an urgency to push for more consistent measurement and simpler ways to buy and optimize TV. Unfortunately, these questions of reinvention often get discussed at length at events like Cannes, said Paramount’s EVP, Advanced Advertising, Travis Scoles, “Then we go back to New York and keep doing the same thing.”
It’s never going to be easy for TV to operate just like Instagram or Google, given its fragmentation and technological limitations. That makes it harder for digital natives to get the kind of control and immediate data they are used to (and will be a big challenge for the new Walmart/Vibe hookup).
For instance, I had Dave Kersey, head of media at the consumer product company Shark Ninja on the Next in Media podcast this week. The company is all in on social media and creators.
“What I look for and what matters to me are partners that come to the table with total business and growth solutions,” he said.
“TV doesn’t show up in our conversations that often.”
“When I look at broadening that out and scaling it across platforms, channels, digital opportunities like digital out-of-home or CTV, it’s the signal breakdown that is the biggest pain point because I need that to be true and connected in order for me to move at speed across the full ecosystem.”
It’s true that SharkNinja may be an extreme example, given its direct-response, infomercial bent. But when a brand like Pepsi is saying that it is “Moving away from historical advertising patterns” that feels like a statement.
Per Bellinger, Pepsi isn’t just moving dollars to YouTube or to creators - it’s letting them drive strategy, because that’s what consumers appear to want.
In fact, for several of its chips brands, Pepsi recently executed a test with its creator integrations - where a group of creators was given a very prescriptive brief, and the other group was given a very open-ended assignment.
“The open-ended one worked much better,” he said.
That tracks with what several top YouTubers told attendees during a later Google Beach session - which was noteworthy in that the emphasis was on brand integrations with top creators - and not necessarily putting more media dollars in YouTube’s pockets.
Alex Cooper of Call Her Daddy fame said she’s seen a “big shift in the past three years. Brands are letting [creators] lead.”
At the same time, more top creators are exerting their power. Jack Goldburg, of the YouTube channel Jack’s Dining Room, estimated that he turns down nine out of 10 brand opportunities. “I say no pretty much every day,” he said.
Brittany Browski, who is known for, among many things, interviewing celebrities while dressed in medieval garb, said that many marketers still need coaxing to let go of creative control.
“You need to find those brands you genuinely connect with,” she said. “It needs to be a match. If you want it to truly be successful, make my audience give a shit.”
Browski cited a recent campaign for Cash App, during which the brand gave her almost carte blanche permission to make content.
Of course, brands still have KPIs. And not every company is going to be comfortable leaving their key messaging to someone with full editorial freedom.
Which is why paid media, and TV, will always have a place, even if Pepsi is truly looking to blow up its entire media strategy.
But it’s just getting that much harder to simple use TV to go mass. And the TV industry is feeling it.
“Right now we find ourselves in a seminal moment as it relates to data-driven [TV ads],” said Ryan Gould, President, US Ad Sales, GTM, Warner Bros. Discovery. “The economics of premium content, it’s not sustainable. The ad model that exists today, can’t support journalism, live sports, scripted content, etc.”
“We are making shows for today…and transacting in a style from three decades ago.”
Meanwhile, the big creators - are making whatever they want, and are getting paid. Whether that’s enough for most brands is the question that remains unanswered.
Mike who are some of the biggest creators you are referring to (not named Mr. Beast).