The festival’s project is to encourage a greater presence of women in leadership positions in advertising agencies and advertisers
One of the main projects on the Cannes Lions agenda since 2014, created by Madonna Badger (Badger & Winters), See It Be It aims to show that women are fit to occupy any position in C-Levels positions. This year, the Brazilian representative will be Letícia Rodrigues, associate creative director at FCB Brasil. Who gave the following interview to PROPMARK:
What does it mean to you to be on the Cannes Lions See It Be It list?
It’s a huge honor. When I read the bios of the other 14 creatives selected with me around the world, I almost fell over backwards. Immediately hit that Imposter Syndrome of “I can’t be part of this group”. But after the penny dropped, seeing myself there made me believe more in myself, in my work and in the strength of what I have built for the market.
What is the basis of your content?
The application for SIBI is a form with questions about your work, experiences and trajectory. What counts there is the body of work, what you have built and how you have contributed to the creative community as a whole. It’s a space to show how you transform your vulnerabilities into learning and strength to lead.
Why did you choose this path?
The only certainty I always had is that I would work with “creativity”, choosing creation I think was the most obvious way, but not the easiest. Advertising brings you a lot of cool stuff, but it also demands a lot from you, mainly because it’s an environment made for you not to feel welcome. I don’t know exactly why I chose this path, but I know why I want to follow it: to help build environments where everyone feels like they belong.
Does the woman in advertising still need to walk to have her space?
Not walking. Run marathon. Long and exhausting. A lot has improved and evolved, thank goodness! But we still see entire articles printed with only men, few women in leadership and boards. When we look at these numbers, the finish line is still a long way off.
How do you see the entry of trans and cis in the cast?
I think it’s amazing. It is a program to boost the career of female leaders. Whether cis or trans, if you’re a woman, it’s for you.
Could you name some works from your career?
I strongly believe in works that start from truths, that connect with the public and generate conversations. I’ll tell you about two: #PPKSEMTABU for Bayer is a work that I always like to mention because it was made with a 90% female team, from creation to final production. So, when I hear people say “it’s just that there’s no woman to do it”, AH, yes there is! The result is here: a beautiful, true work that generated conversation, and most importantly: it made the product break sales records and became a benchmark in the category, after all, that’s what we work for.
Another work that I also loved doing was bringing to life the meme “Never cold because I’m always right” in Brastemp’s latest campaign, in which we literally created the Cover of Reason to reinforce the positioning “Without a doubt, Brastemp.” Nothing better than generating connections from what is already there in the conversation circles, being talked about on the internet. Social listening is very important in our profession.
