South Africa, July 22 -- This year, Cannes Lions shortlisted multiple AI-generated campaigns - and the industry applauded. "Revolutionary," some said. "Democratizing creativity," claimed others. But here's the real question: Are we confusing automation with inspiration?

When we hand awards to generative AI campaigns, we're not celebrating creativity - we're celebrating efficiency. That's not the same thing.

Cannes Lions 2025 saw multiple campaigns created entirely using tools like Midjourney, Sora, Runway, and ChatGPT. Judges praised them for 'originality' and 'breakthrough execution'. But how can something be original if it was trained on everything that came before it?

A recent WARC report revealed that 54% of award submissions in 20...