Young Voices Article 05

Alicia Spyropoulos, junior copywriter at TABOO and Youngbloods VIC committee member, reflects on Cannes 2026 and what it revealed about her own ambition.

At the Palais on Monday afternoon, in a back room, the presenter claimed: I want to change the world.

Something about this stuck in my mind. It felt…out of place. But that made no sense. If there was ever a room in which to say you want to change the world, surely the room for the live judging of Glass Lions: The Lion for Change would be the one.

After starting as a junior at TABOO last year, it was an absolute privilege to land at Cannes 2026 as an Australian rep of the Young Lions Competition. Not many people get to say that they’ve seen the global talent pool and world-class thinking up close so early in their career.

Witnessing the industry in its most distilled form, to my fresh, inspired and somewhat overwhelmed eyes, one thing was clear: this was the peak of ambition. It was the Olympics of advertising, after all. It was where motivations funnelled from carbon to diamond (or Gold), hope for success glinting in every bead of sweat and every sip of overpriced beer. So why did it feel so strange to hear that statement?

There was just something about someone standing there convincing the judges that they should win with this desire to change the world. A weird tension that I’ve been trying to pick apart since.

It may be because when someone says this in a moment where they’re gunning for recognition, the motivation becomes blurred.

Awards matter. Winning Young Lions gave me an unmistakable feeling of validation that completely changed my confidence in my work, in a way that nothing but an award could. It told a younger version of myself, the version that spent many years (and two goes at AWARD School) trying to break into the industry, that I could actually do this thing. And that means something.

The thing is, we don’t make campaigns in a vacuum. We know awards exist. And that means when that beautiful, wonderful, completely unexpected, completely brilliant ‘aha!’ moment lands and the neurons fire and the dots connect and the fireworks erupt…that can also be the moment we start picturing the jury. The completely wonderful, brilliant, unknown, exhausted jury. And they can stay with us from concepting to dispatch.

When I first realised I wanted to make an impact with my work, it was in AWARD School (the first time). The course itself was a baptism by fire into award culture, my favourite tutors being the ones that told me to make a book that I was happy with, first and foremost. We were shown the campaign Morning After Island, and I realised the power of advertising to change minds, change behaviour, change laws. This was more than a simple product-push and a pun. I realised good advertising has the ability to change the world.

At the Young Lions inspo morning, all of us from around the world were asked where we wanted to be in 10 years. The answers meshed together, I want to be speaking here. I want to be a CD. It’s so common for people to orient themselves towards titles, Lions, recognition. I found myself thinking I want to orient myself towards what I would be speaking about, what I would want to do as a CD. What I would get a Lion for.

When I think back to that statement in that room at the Palais, I think what really unsettled me was that I didn’t know if I believed them. Would they still want to change the world if there wasn’t a Lion at the end of it? Does it matter?

For what it’s worth, I want to change the world. I just hope I’d still want to if no one was watching.







Thanks for reading our fifth Article of Young Voices.

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Article 05 was written by Alicia Spyropoulos, Junior Creative at The Taboo Group & Youngbloods Committee Member