Bia and Thiago’s talk at Cannes shows that the favela has always been part of the future and that creativity is, above all, a form of survival.
“How do we create in a world that’s falling apart?”
That question opened one of the most emotional and powerful talks I’ve ever witnessed at Cannes.
And it didn’t come from an Apple executive. Or a Silicon Valley innovation guru.
It came from Bia and Thiago two Brazilian creatives, our friends who turned the Cannes Lions stage into a manifesto about what it really means to create in times of scarcity.
They didn’t use sleek slides.
They didn’t throw market data at the audience.
They didn’t talk about the metaverse or this year’s buzzwords.
They brought an old car wheel, a piece of a PET bottle, a patched-up flip-flop.
And with that, they taught the most sophisticated audience in the advertising world something it may have never stopped to hear: gambiarra is technology.
Bia, raised in Diadema. Thiago, born in Capão Redondo.
They didn’t have to fake an accent or soften their message.
They spoke proudly and precisely from where they came from.
They showed that in Brazil’s favelas, innovation has always been a matter of urgency not trend.
And while the world searches for new ways to create with less impact, the Brazilian periphery has been doing it for decades turning lack into form, pain into design, and absence into affection.
The presentation was an ode to improvisation, to popular inventiveness, and to the critical awareness of those who know many brands talk about sustainability, but very few actually practice it.
While advertising acts like it invented the word “reuse,” the favela was already turning it into toys, furniture, food, and homes.
They mentioned Santos Dumont. The Apollo 13 mission. Lucas from Complexo do Alemão, who built a 3D printer out of scrap. A mother and daughter in Pernambuco who built a house with 8,000 bottles.
They shared alarming data about the environmental cost of technology.
But more than that, they offered another measure of value.
I walked out of there emotional. Sarah was crying. The audience gave them a standing ovation.
Foreigners came up to us saying, “Thank you for that.”
It was one of the truest moments Cannes has ever had.
Because it wasn’t about performance. It was about power.
And that’s what kept echoing through the packed theater:
the favela is not a trend it’s a reference.
If Cannes is the world’s biggest creativity festival, it needs to keep making space for those creating real solutions in the real world.
And it needs to listen to more voices like Bia and Thiago’s.
Because if the future wants to be sustainable, diverse, creative, and accountable
it will have to go through gambiarra.
