Cannes Young Lions is the most exciting and celebrated advertising competition for new creatives in the world. It is here that they have an opportunity to showcase their talents to the industry as a whole – it is recognised as the platform to celebrate their creative achievements.

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Yet it is kept exclusively to those who are aged 30 or under.

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The problem is that there’s no limit on how much experience you have – meaning that a 30 year old Senior Creative with 9 years’ experience can enter, while a 31 year old Junior with less than a year of experience can’t.

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You could argue that this is not that much of a big deal, after all this is just one competition, right? But it’s emblematic of a wider issue of ageism in advertising - rewarding youth for youth’s sake and making it more difficult for people who switch careers and enter the industry in their thirties and forties to access
the same opportunities.

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Yes, it’s great to celebrate what people have accomplished early in their working lives, but by creating these kinds of age limits we’re implying that people who enter the industry later in life are less impressive in their achievements. It also praises people for choosing to, and having the means to, go straight into advertising in their early twenties.

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Why is the work of a 37 year old, with under one years’ experience in advertising, deemed less impressive or noteworthy than the work of a 29 year old with 8 years’ experience?

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Is a 29 year old’s idea worth more than a 39 year old’s? 

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In order to create true diversity and an even playing field, the way we celebrate and reward creativity should also be inclusive and diverse.