Cannes Lions tightens rules with new ‘integrity standards’

July 11, 2025 9:22

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has introduced new integrity standards and measures for its awards, following this year’s controversy where a number of Lion-winning campaigns were withdrawn due to manipulation, synthetic media, and the use of AI.

Following a “thorough review”, an evolved framework will be introduced from 2026 onwards, with a renewed model of “accountability, rigour, and trust”.

It follows an incident at Cannes Lions 2025, where three winning campaigns from DM9 were withdrawn. Its Creative Data Grand Prix winning work for Consul was found to have been AI-manipulated (see below).

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Lauren McNamara

Lauren McNamara is a freelance journalist. She previously spent three years at Mumbrella, most recently as the associate editor. She left her staff role in August 2025.