Celebrity News

Sheryl Sandberg, Tim Armstrong and Madison Avenue head to Cannes

Get ready for ‘Mad Men’ on steroids — or Champagne.

Madison Avenue’s biggest check-writers and the globe’s most successful creators of advertising touch down in Cannes, France, for their annual confab today — to be joined this year by scores of Silicon Valley tech whizzes as advertising continues it massive digital push.

The Cannes Lions may be up against the World Cup — but around 12,500 delegates are expected to swarm the famous Croisette waterfront boulevard and lap-up hours of serious seminars along with endless parties and promotions.

Among those joining the 61st annual event are: Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, AOL’s Tim Armstrong, Google’s Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora, Pinterest’s co-founder Ben Silbermann and venture capitalist Ben Horowitz.

The bosses of Madison Avenue powerhouses Omnicom, WPP, Publicis and IPG will be there to compare share prices and figure out some new jokes about Omnicom’s failed merger with Publicis.

Big media executives such as Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes and Viacom’s Philippe Dauman will take part in sessions that kick off Monday.

You know the Thursday session with supermodel Gisele Bundchen talking about her Brazilian roots and her passion projects supporting the Amazon rain forest will be packed.

Other sessions of notes include:

  • Twitter boss Dick Costolo, Viacom’s Dauman and WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell will kibitz about how social media helps TV.
  • Cosmo Editor Joanna Coles will grill actress Sarah Jessica Parker on power and celebrity and staying in fashion.
  • National Geographic photographers will talk about the power of the picture.

While all this may seem far removed from the business of selling products and services through advertising, Lions Festivals CEO Philip Thomas tells The Post, “The idea is to bring people from all backgrounds to see how other creative people solve their issues.”

Other creative types adding spice to the Canned mix include screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, who will chat with “Downton Abbey” Executive Producer Rebecca Eaton. Actor Ralph Fiennes and film- maker Spike Jonze will also feature on panels.

On the party front, Mariah Carey is performing songs from her new album with the support of Clear Channel. Courtney Love will appear at the festival to discuss failure and song writing.

Cannes Lions, once a festival for ad agencies looking to compete to win awards for the best campaigns, has become a South by Southwest for every Fortune 500 marketing department.

“The most interesting change happening this year is the movie studios sending their people to the festival. We have Sony Pictures, Paramount and Disney and MTV,” Thomas said. DreamWorks Animation boss Jeffrey Katzenberg will be on hand to talk about how to attract an audience to YouTube.

Oscar winner Jared Leto will chat about craft in music, again underscoring a strong musical flavor to the event dominated by American attendees.

The event will wind up June 21 with U2’s Bono chatting with Apple’s design czar Jony Ive.

Lastly, the world will discover the best idea in advertising for the year when agencies line up for the Titanium Grand Prix award. Ogilvy, Brazil won for real beauty sketches for Unilever.