In the four years I’ve been attending Cannes Lions, the unspoken rule is to avoid anything remotely political. There are lots of obvious reasons for this: Brands are terrified of alienating customers (Republicans buy sneakers too, and all that), and the influencers who populate the “press” briefings at Cannes are often more interested in a partnership than getting a question answered. And hey, who really wants to talk about electoral politics during a nice day at the beach?

Conservatives would argue that big tech, advertisers, and the media companies assembled here at Cannes have been political, just not in a way that’s favorable to their side. Indeed, in the years after 2020, major marketing companies and brands touted fairly milquetoast diversity initiatives that made the right seethe. The political left also occasionally makes its voice heard at Cannes via climate protesters horrified by the destructive environmental impact of some major companies that spend big dollars to improve their image (and set up shop for the week along the Croisette).

The Daily Wire and the Truth Social crew aren’t the first right-leaning figures to show up at Cannes.

Stagwell, the company of ex-Clinton pollster-turned-Democratic Party critic Mark Penn, throws one of the most lavish events every year at his Sports Beach, which features scores of major American athletes. Linda Yaccarino spent some of her final days as CEO of X mingling with advertisers while wearing a necklace with her X handle on it (she stepped down from the company a few weeks later).

Last June, RedSeat Ventures founder Chris Balfe was on hand as he scoped out deals for his clients, and iHeartMedia brought along Buck Sexton, who took over the radio slot vacated when Rush Limbaugh died, though he seemed slightly uncomfortable in the setting when I introduced myself to him at an afterparty at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc.

But while Penn and Yaccarino have been sensitive to being portrayed as too friendly to Trump, The Daily Wire has leaned into the idea that there’s a large segment of conservatives out there who want to be spoken to, the way major brands occasionally feel able to speak to more progressive audiences.

The question Wednesday will answer is: How receptive are the big (and medium-sized) advertisers here at Cannes to hearing not just an openly political message, but one coming from the right?

“We’ve fought really hard for fair treatment from the advertising industry. We have a responsibility to show up and try to engage with it,” Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Brent Scher told Semafor in an email.