Coronavirus Update: Cannes Lions Advertising Show Cancelled Amid COVID-19 Pandemic, New Dates Announced

Cannes Lions has announced that its annual Festival of Creativity stands cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity was postponed from July to October 2020 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, now the next edition of the advertising festival will take place from June 21-25, 2021.

“As the impact from COVID-19 continues to be felt across the world on consumers and our customers across the marketing, creative and media industries, it has become clear to us our customers’ priorities have shifted to the need to protect people, to serve consumers with essential items and to focus on preserving companies, society, and economies,” Cannes Lions said in a statement on April 3.

Philip Thomas, chairman of Cannes Lions, said in a statement that creative and marketing industries are in great turmoil in these challenging times. He added that all they can do is clear any uncertainty concerning the event this year.

Simon Cook, Managing Director of Cannes Lions said that they wish to look ahead to a “more positive time.”

“We believe firmly that the Lions continue to offer valuable recognition to that community and we look forward to celebrating and honoring the work in 2021 when the world will hopefully feel more stable, and our community can give their work the focus it deserves,” Cook said.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, several events are either delayed or canceled. Recently, the Cannes Film Festival was postponed from May to end of June and beginning of July 2020. The team at Festival de Cannes released a statement revealing that they cannot hold the event on the scheduled dates – May 12 to 23.

The coronavirus death toll has reached 58,929 as of April 4, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center. Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases has surpassed 1.1 million and 226,669 people have recovered from this illness.