Day two of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity kicked off with the Cannes LionHeart Seminar.

Oprah Winfrey, the recipient of the 2026 Cannes LionHeart, took to the stage and spoke about the ‘brand Oprah’, the importance of authentic empowerment and intention, and more..

The talk was moderated by Phil Thomas, chairperson, Cannes Lions.

Reflecting on her journey, she recalled initially rejecting the label of ‘brand’ before embracing it as an extension of her values, purpose, and mission in life. “When I first started out, I resisted 100% ever being called a brand. The Oprah Show went international in 1986, and by 1989-90, the show was so popular that people were saying that I was a brand. Every time that was written or said, I hated it because somehow it felt like it was taking away from my real intention to be as authentic as possible. But now, I don't resist it anymore. I have accepted that I have a brand and that my heart is my brand. I have used the essence of my heart, and what is meaningful, truthful and purposeful to me to create a platform, or rather many platforms now,” shared Winfrey.

She added, “I'm on the same mission that all of you are really on. You all think that you're here as marketers and creators - that's the role that you're playing. But that's a career that you've chosen, that's just the path. There's a bigger reason for all of us to be here. To be fully human, at some point, you have to ask yourself: Why am I really here?"

Winfrey traced her understanding of authenticity and purpose back to a defining moment in 1989 when she picked up the book Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukav.

She shared, “In the book, he talks about what is real versus what isn't. It also talks about having a multisensory personality, being able to see beyond the five senses, and being able to know what's real and meaningful. Zukav says that when your personality comes to serve the energy of your soul - that is authentic empowerment. And that is the kind of empowerment that nobody can take away from you.”

“Views, subscriptions, and sales will rise and fall in your lifetime. Sometimes you have good days, bad days, successes, and failures, but the most important thing is to never lose sight of the real reason you have come to the planet Earth. The spectacular miracle that is actually your life, and you now get to use it in the role of a creator. The real reason you're here is to use yourself in service to something that's greater than yourself. Reading that book reinforced for me that I was on the right path. It got me thinking, how do I now apply this to my television show?” she said.

Stressing the importance of intention in whatever one does, Winfrey observed, “The brand is just an expression of yourself. The third law of motion says that for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. It’s like the law of Karma - whatever you put out in the world, you will get back. Once you realise that there is a physical law operating in the universe, you become more conscious of your intention and how you think about things. Zukov says that your intention is one with the cause of the effect. You cannot separate them; there’s no cause without having an intention for wanting the cause.”

She recollected the time when she pulled all her producers together and told them they were not going to do any show unless their intention aligned with it. “I told them I just have to have a thread of truth that I can hold onto so that when I sit in the seat, I am being true to myself. I'm not pretending or faking. So, we started having meetings a week before every show to talk about what the intention is going to be. Then we'd have a meeting after every show to talk about if we fulfilled the intention.”

Recognising the impact that she has on people, Winfrey explained how she leveraged her platform to give voice to people's experiences, beliefs, ambitions and dreams. “I know I have an impact, so I'm not trying to be modest about it. I started to know I had it around 1989, and I realised that it could be used as a force for good. I purposely said to the producers that we're not going to let TV use us anymore. Every show that we do, in some form or another, is going to speak to where people are in their lives and what the yearning and the search are for all of us. Those who have watched us over the years know that that's what we were trying to do,” she said.

She further added, “I understood from the beginning that it wasn't about me. It was always about the people I was serving. I haven't really thought about how you create a brand, but looking back on how that happened, it was because we sat down with the team and said how do we change this from just a television show to a service to the viewer, and how do we allow their views, desires, hopes, and dreams to be reflected in what we're showing. We started sitting down with the audience after every show. I learned so much from just listening to people. Where did they come from? What's going on in their lives? What's happening with their children? That became my focus group. I would bring in the producers who listened and took notes. That’s how we built shows for people. I built a brand based on my heart, what I was seeking and what I needed to serve for myself.”

On a concluding note, she asserted, “No matter what your creative form of expression is, don’t let it rule you. You want to let it fuel you and use it for the highest expression of yourself. Creativity is all about reaching the fullest, purest, truest, and highest expression of ourselves as human beings on the planet."