OpenAI pitches ChatGPT ads at Cannes as CPM collapses

This article was published on June 26, 2026 The ChatGPT maker pitched agencies from a hidden villa while its ad pricing collapsed from $60 to $25 CPM in ten weeks TL;DROpenAI made its Cannes Lions debut pitching ChatGPT as the next big ad platform, but its initial $60 CPM halved in ten weeks. The company projects $100 billion in ad revenue by 2030 while Anthropic and Google keep their chatbots ad-free. OpenAI made its Cannes Lions debut pitching ChatGPT as the next big ad platform, but its initial $60 CPM halved in ten weeks. The company projects $100 billion in ad revenue by 2030 while Anthropic and Google keep their chatbots ad-free. OpenAI made its debut at the Cannes Lions advertising festival this week, but it did not book a beach club on the Croisette alongside Meta, Amazon, and Google. Instead, the company summoned reporters and agency executives to a semi-secluded villa near the harbour, a staging choice that doubles as metaphor: OpenAI is in the ad business, just not in the way the incumbents are. The pitch was led by David Dugan, a former Meta executive who spent more than twelve years as vice president of global clients and agencies before joining OpenAI as VP of adverti