Public-Private Partners convene at Cannes for launch of SDG Lounge at International Creative Festival hosted by SAWA, UNDP, PVBLIC and ESG News
Isa Kurata (Co-Founder Act Responsible) with Stephen Keppel (President PVBLIC Foundation)
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS:
Isa Kurata (Co-Founder Act Responsible) with Stephen Keppel (President PVBLIC Foundation)
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (00:00):
Hello. My name is Stephen Keppel, President of PVBLIC foundation. We’re here at the SDG lounge at the Canne Lions Festival of Creativity. I’m joined for this conversation by Isa Kurata. Who’s a co-founder of Act Responsible. Um, we’re actually in this great space now that you all put together. Um, Isa, tell me a little bit about act responsible, um, and also what you are all doing here in Cannes Lion.
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (00:26):
Um, yeah. Thank you. Thank you for inviting me first, um, Act Responsible. So act means stands for Advertising Community Together. Okay. And it was, it was a movement started in 2001 just in reaction of nine 11. Uh, I was working with a platform, uh, at that time, uh, promoting, uh, advertising called ad form and we were there and in shock, uh, the employees were in shock, uh, in front of what happened. And we decided to just, you know, post on the website, create Acto advertising community together, create against, uh, violence. And healthism, uh, that’s really the beginning of act. We received, uh, 130 year campaign or ideas, not campaigns, ideas, expression of so solidarity from the industry, from the creative industry that was so moving that we decided to do something with it. So we did, uh, called the can lion mm-hmm <affirmative> and at that time, the head of the Canne Lions, uh, and, uh, the mayor of can mayor Cann was, uh, an X, D DB, uh, guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, yeah, so they offered, they opened a space and, and we presented the, the exhibition still shining New York. It was born mm-hmm <affirmative> um, and, uh, and then we thought we can’t just leave it like this, you know, there’s so many good ideas that came out of that, but at the same time, there was a movement, uh, the against advertising movement.
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (02:09):
Oh, okay. Yeah.
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (02:10):
It’s really criticizing advertising and started criticizing us saying you are just a good conscience advertising. And, um, and, and really, we said, okay, let’s meet. That was the first reaction let’s meet, which is often not the first reaction. Yeah,
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (02:28):
It’s true.
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (02:29):
And, and, and that actually that non fear of being attacked and them expressing what they had to say, they made us evaluate and helped us a lot because we became act as it is now. Yeah. Act is collecting the best campaign, uh, around the world. Uh, we are, we collect in, we have more than 116, uh, countries mm-hmm, <affirmative> represented the adapt base. We’ve been collecting those, uh, campaigns, uh, for 20
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (02:59):
Years in all campaigns or just campaigns that have, uh, an impact focus,
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (03:04):
No, uh, campaigns that have an,
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (03:06):
A social good,
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (03:07):
A social environment. Yeah. Uh, and good. Yeah. Um, and, um, and so, yeah, so this collection, uh, of in the database is really interesting. And so we present a few ideas. Mm-hmm <affirmative> here in can every year, we are welcomed every year by the festival. There have been super great supporter. There are more and more, our relationship is building up. It’s really interesting. Nothing is done in with violence. So it’s stronger and have a very strong base and, and yeah. To create this beautiful ex exhibition to inspire really, and, and celebrate yeah.
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (03:44):
And show some of the best examples of how yeah. And creative advertising can cause change. And
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (03:49):
Not even some of the best and some, you know, just examples, because I remember one of, in the first exhibition, some example, weren’t even, I could see that it was not exactly what we needed to do, but at the same time it’s seeing where like the picture, like the yearly picture of what’s the expression of the, um, the creativity in advertising on social causes, environmental causes this.
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (04:19):
Yeah. Okay.
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (04:19):
And it actually gives you when we saw plastic coming plastic in ocean. I know that you’re going to the ocean country. Yes. Plastic in ocean was really clearly appeared me, was clearly our exhibition. Interesting. It’s really
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (04:34):
Interesting. Cause it is a yeah. A reflection of society in that moment, in that year. Exactly. And you get, yeah, there’s a number of trends. I’m sure that we’re seeing now this year, but also in the past, talk a little bit about the database that you guys have put together of this. Cause I think this is really interesting. Yeah.
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (04:50):
Very interesting. So during, during COVID, we, we didn’t at all stop, but again, like a lot of people, it’s a time where you kind of take a step back. Yeah. And we decided to go back, uh, and actually on, on the advice and, and of an agency who said have came, have asked York, worked with us to create this. Um, and they, they, um, they said, well, you have a lot of data in the, in the database. Let’s go and see what’s in it. And we didn’t really know what you know, would come out of it. And actually it’s really interesting because it gives trends like how the different, like the different media mm-hmm <affirmative> before that you had two media for like a print and, and TV. Yeah. And like the scope, like really the diversity today. Um, it, it, it gives us, uh, how some of the big, big, uh, if we say environmental theme evaluate against social themes, mm-hmm, <affirmative> one, you knowed more, we think we see a lot of campaigns on environment, but no, in reality in the database, we, we see that still social
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (06:06):
Campaigns yeah. Is,
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (06:08):
Are a bigger part of the,
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (06:10):
The database. And you said it’s, the database is 20, some thousand 20, 28. Yeah.
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (06:16):
28,000.
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (06:17):
I’d say, wow. And over the last 20 years. Yeah. Yeah. So talk, what are some of the trends over time that you’ve seen, um, particularly around the stable development goals, you know, here at SDG lounge. Um, but yeah. What are, are there certain goals that are being covered more than others?
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (06:33):
Yeah. Well, so we went, I think in 2008, we went back into the database to tag the da the database with first with the, um, the eight, uh, goals. Mm-hmm <affirmative> Al
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (06:48):
Yes. Oh, wow. So, yeah.
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (06:49):
Yeah. And then we moved to at, um, the 17 sustainable, uh, and yeah, when, when we see the map of, so you have the big ones, like more general ones, like promoting peace, you know, that are really big and stuff, but you see that some, some female and I’m gonna take like access to, uh, drinkable water yeah. Is a very small dot compared to the rest. So again, it’s a more specific thing than promoters.
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (07:19):
Sure,
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (07:19):
Sure. But still, it gives you, it gives you a map of what are the concerns it has been tackling in society
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (07:27):
Yeah.
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (07:29):
At, at a tea time. Yeah.
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (07:35):
At the moment, at
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (07:36):
The moment. And so it gives you like this picture, um, and it probably would help if we do it, you know, uh, more often now that we did it once, maybe we can do it more often to see if some of the goals can be addressed or, or can be pushed, um, when, when we talk to companies or yeah. And say, yeah, saying, so what about this mm-hmm <affirmative> is it like access to drinkable water? Is it completely solved?
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (08:07):
Yeah. No, no. We know that.
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (08:09):
So,
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (08:09):
So tell me about some of the other trends you’ve seen over time. Right. Have certain issues become bigger over time or more recently? Um, in, in advertising. Well,
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (08:19):
Inclusion and diversity.
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (08:21):
Yeah. And when, yeah, in the last few years, since the last,
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (08:26):
I would say in the last three years
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (08:28):
Yeah.
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (08:29):
Um, environment kicked in around 2009, really bit more specifically mm-hmm <affirmative>, it’s, it’s actually very interesting to see that the first ad in the database, the first two ads in the database that we had not, because at first we, um, we gathered, um, NGO work, charity work to show that advertising was playing a room or was helping, um, association NGO around the world to have a voice mm-hmm <affirmative> act was like showing the voice that the, the community was, were giving to association 2004.
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (09:08):
Oh wow.
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (09:10):
2004, we had two advertisers, uh, in the, in like commercial advertising, the DOF compare complain will 2004.
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (09:20):
Wow.
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (09:20):
They were just received a grand kind of the, its what, what works is, is because they’re continuing, they found exactly the theme that matches their DNA and, and so they’re
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (09:36):
Making and something that resonates with society and yeah. Continuing to absolutely. And adapting and evolving over time. Yeah,
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (09:42):
Absolutely. And, and actually another really small one from that I find that really like, uh, from, um, Mumbai, triumph, distillers who actually tackles the problem of when you drink too much. How do you
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (09:58):
See, ah,
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (09:59):
So maybe you can show it.
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (10:02):
Yeah. And is there a website where people can, can find the report?
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (10:06):
Yes. There is. The website is called great ads, so
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (10:11):
Good, great ads for good
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (10:13):
Like.org.
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (10:14):
Okay. Great ads for good.org. Great.
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (10:16):
There’s only the examples. There’s the digital catalog and yeah. It’s really interesting. It’s the 20 year recap basically. Yeah.
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (10:23):
That’s amazing. So you, in the database, there’s 20 years of ads here on display, you know, um, where you see some of them, you know, you must be, see hundreds of, of ads each year. What makes you optimistic about what you’re seeing? Where do you think based on all of this, given that advertising is often a reflection of society, what are you seeing and yeah. What makes you optimistic?
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (10:48):
Everything makes me optimistic because I wouldn’t do what I do if I wasn’t an optimistic <laugh> yeah. Or an idealist. Um, I, I, my first, uh, exhibition in, in 2003 with the ad collected for NGO from all around the world, when I came back after one week in can in the exhibition, seeing those ads for three weeks, I was tired. Mm-hmm <affirmative> so first week I was tired, I cried. Yeah. But then it stayed the, the year after 2004, I called the exhibition, the exhibition that will change you from the inside.
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (11:26):
Hmm. Interesting.
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (11:27):
Because this kind of media to address, to tackle those issues is far the most powerful. Yeah. So that’s what makes me really optimistic, um, is that we need to push and push again. I, I know that the advertising agencies are now embracing those,
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (11:52):
Those issues. Yeah. Sustainability inclusion, diversity over the world, they’re
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (11:56):
Doing a great job. We need like to continue pushing that because they’re gonna help us, especially with young generation where the attention span span is really
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (12:07):
Short. Yeah. Yeah. We
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (12:08):
Need, we need true message. Like beautiful image, powerful tagline. Yeah. Emotion and that’s it. And, and it’s, it creates something.
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (12:18):
Yeah.
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (12:19):
So yeah. So that’s
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (12:20):
Yeah. That’s, that’s a no, that’s great. I see you. Right. So I think strong creativity and storytelling, it comes through in a lot of these ads, some inspire you, so make you angry. Yeah. You know, um, which is needed for a lot of things, you know, cuz hopefully that’s what inspires us in the world to act on some of these things. Um, I know, yeah. There’s a couple things around, like we were talking yesterday about the use of plastic in different places and the thing and it’s, it’s, it’s incredible. Um, but it’s great to see the positive side of ads kind of show showing us this and, and highlighted into the world. Um, he’s a great thank you for so much for, for talking to us and joining us here and creating this amazing space. Um, remind us again, where can, where can we find act responsible on the web, on social media and then also the, the data?
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (13:04):
Okay. So
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (13:05):
Ed Ed’s for good.org,
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (13:07):
Great ads for good.org,
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (13:10):
Great ads for good.org. So
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (13:11):
That’s the, the annual exhibition and this year, the 20 year exhibition, whether the digital catalog and, and all the great work, um, and the database of all the ads are on act-responsible.org. But the two sites communicates mm-hmm <affirmative> um, social media. I have no idea because
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (13:32):
Just search act responsible, I’ve seen it, I’ve followed in like some of your things. And
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (13:38):
Um, and the last thing I want to say to the community, just the last thing is you said something really interesting that we’re missing. I think the only thing we are missing, we have beautiful ads, ads that raise awareness. Mm-hmm <affirmative> we need beautiful ads that gives us the, the action, you know, leverage them. Yes. What is the fraction? How do it, how do I, we need the solution. Yeah. We need to focus on the solution. Okay. Shocking. And, and the shocking message will wake us up. Okay. I think we are kind of away. Yeah. A little bit more than a few years ago. Yeah. I
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (14:15):
Promise you I’ve seen that.
Isa Kurata, Co-Founder, Act Responsible (14:16):
Yeah. Coming up. So now that we have the attention, we shouldn’t miss the, you know how, when you have the attention and then it falls back, it’s now the attention is now. So we shouldn’t miss the momentum. Yeah. To really expedite. Yeah.
Stephen Keppel, President, PVBLIC (14:30):
So we have the information where more people are becoming awake and aware what’s going on now we need to act, I think that’s a great way to end. Thank you so much. Eva’s responsible act and act responsible. So thank you so much. I really enjoyed this conversation. Thank you. All right. I know.