This June, Raging Artists traveled to the South of France for the 54th International Advertising Festival. As usual, many of our clients - including Incubator, Machine Head and Über Content - were on hand, and for one RA client this was a first walk up the Carlton steps (which actually tops the Palais red carpet when making an entrance) and into the wild and wonderful world of Cannes.

SLAM (Sportie LA Media), Los Angeles

"Cannes was something else," said Isack Fadlon (pict., far l), co-owner of top indie retailer Sportie LA and the driving force behind SLAM (Sportie LA Media), which provides nontraditional creative marketing promotion, advertising production and consulting for select sneaker brands.

"This first pic is from the Location Guide party on Wednesday, about an hour after we landed. It only got better from there, as you can see in the following shot, taken at the John Legend show (thanks, Creativity & Corbis!). First of all, so many people knew about SLAM (note to self: never doubt Hesh, ever), so the 'work' part was done." Fadlon was joined by SLAM Sr. Creative Director/Chief Technology Officer Justo Diaz (pict. below, far l.), also making his first trip to the Festival. 

"Living on the advertiser, agency, and production sides, I can tell you the environment at Cannes is the most open and friendly I've encountered," Fadlon concluded. "It was a fantastic few days and next year, we'll have the whole week. Now, that said, if I could cut my Gutter Bar hours by 40 or 50 next year, it wouldn't be the worst move in the world."  

While industry legend Bob Giraldi couldn't make it to the Festival (he was shooting on location in New York City and is currently prepping two features), his new venture CATATONIA GIRALDI made a splash in the Cannes Lions Dailies with a triptych ad in Friday's short-list issue.