Cannes Lions slashes juror numbers and introduces pre-shortlisting in bid to improve process

The organisers of the Cannes Lions advertising awards are cutting the number of jurors and shortlisting in some categories before the week of the festival in an apparent attempt to encourage “meaningful debate”.

This year the festival came in for criticism after three agencies handed back awards given for scam work, including the controversial I Sea app from Grey Singapore, which did not even work.

The process came in for criticism jurors this year, with complaints from Australian creative Dave King he was not allowed to call out work he thought was scam – work created to win awards.