Cannes Lions’ battle of the brands: Starbucks’ stumble, World Cup ads, and more

**Jeff Berman** (0:01)
Hey folks, Jeff Berman here. The speaker lineup for Masters of Scale Summit 2026 is coming together, and I'm thrilled to share some of the absolutely iconic speakers we're going to have. The incredible Kara Swisher, Danny Meyer, Anjali Sood from Tubi, Cloudflare's Matthew Prince, Adam Grant, our very own Reid Hoffman, and some folks you might be less familiar with, but who, well, they're going to blow your minds. It's this October 20th to 22nd in San Francisco. Our theme, our agency now could not be more timely. Applications are open, but spots are limited. Apply at mastersofscale.com/apply25.
That's mastersofscale.com/apply25.

**Dara Treseder** (0:51)
When things go wrong, marketing gets blamed, but when it's all going well, nobody's talking to us. It's a real point, and I'm going to sit with it for a minute. I often say marketing is like plumbing. When was the last time, Bob, you went to your house and you were like, oh, I love my plumbing. You're not thinking about your plumbing on the day to day.

**Bob Safian** (1:09)
Only when the pipes break.

**Dara Treseder** (1:10)
Only when the pipes break. You see it all the time now. Your reputation matters as a business. Customers will switch like that from one service to the other because of the trust in the brand, in the business and the story that is being told by a powerful marketing engine.
That is how you build a house that stands the test of time.

**Bob Safian** (1:38)
That's Dara Treseder, CMO of Autodesk and a recurring guest on Rapid Response. Dara and I sat down together at the Cannes Lions Festival in France to break down the buzziest stories and trends in the advertising and marketing world, from the industry's flip-flop on AI to the growing pipeline from CMO to CEO to the trillionaire brand of Elon Musk, plus the hottest and not-so-hot campaigns from the likes of Adidas, Nike, Starbucks and more. As always, Dara brings her A-game, quotable, funny and full of future forward lessons. So, let's get to it. I'm Bob Safian and this is Rapid Response.
I'm Bob Safian and I'm here with Dara Treseder, the CMO of Autodesk at Cannes Lions. Dara, great to be with you.

**Dara Treseder** (2:31)
Thank you so much. This is our annual thing. I always love spending time with you here.

**Bob Safian** (2:35)
Yeah, it's fun.
So, what's the vibe this year? What are you feeling? Are people excited? Are people anxious?

**Dara Treseder** (2:42)
I think people are really excited, but there's also a lot of anxiety about what's going on. And I think there is...
Some people are feeling clear. Some people are feeling like there's a lot of chaos. So, it's a tale of two cities.

**Bob Safian** (2:54)
It's a tale of two cities. Is the chaotic feeling like about the world? Is it about AI and the business?
Where's the chaos landing?

**Dara Treseder** (3:03)
I would say the chaos is a little bit about the world, but a lot about AI. I feel like the chaos on AI is more rampant than it was last year.

**Bob Safian** (3:13)
I mean, I feel like the mood... I mean, we've had such a crazy 2026, right? Things going on in the Middle East and the Knicks winning the championship. There's good news and bad news. Like, the brand of the Knicks, though. The best thing that could happen for New York.

**Dara Treseder** (3:29)
The best thing, the best thing. Everybody likes an underdog, right? Everybody wants to see the challenger win. I'm in the Bay Area, West Coast, Best Coast, but even I, even I was rooting for the Knicks. Okay. And I was so proud. The whole story, the resilience, the story of the coach, the story of jail. I mean, just, there's so much inspiration. And just to say, you New Yorkers, y'all are wild.

**Bob Safian** (3:53)
Yeah, I was a little worried that things were going to get a little...

**Dara Treseder** (3:55)
That grows run for their money there.

**Bob Safian** (3:57)
I was worried things were going to get a little too wild at the parade and everything, because it was a madhouse.

**Dara Treseder** (4:02)
It was wild.

**Bob Safian** (4:03)
But joy was what took over.

**Dara Treseder** (4:05)
Joy, joy. And we needed joy. We needed joy. And I actually think it brought joy more than just to New York. I think it brought joy to America.

**Bob Safian** (4:12)
You were mentioning that you went to the World Cup with your son. And since we're here, I wanted to ask you about the World Cup ads. Is that part of the conversation you're hearing?

**Dara Treseder** (4:23)