So after a flight sitting next to an old boss of mine [which was interesting as I left under abit of a cloud] I arrived in hot and sunny Cannes.
Unsurprisingly, I was immediately hit by 4 key things …
1 The men were either all trying to look like members of The Rolling Stones or Miami Vice [The TV show, not the movie]
2 The women were all unbelievably beautiful and carried themselves off with far more grace than the men could ever hope for
3 There were more Ferrari’s and Bentley’s than even David Beckham could dream of
4 Most people were pissed or obviously trying to pretend they didn’t want to be noticed
Anyway, after checking into my hotel I went out into the sun and within 10 mins of walking along the sea front I found George slumbered in the corner of a bar, pissed out of his head telling me I was his best friend and the awards were all a big, fucking fix. [I kid you not, he even swore!!!]
Apart from the fact he had inadvertently become a great ad for not drinking, I couldn’t help but feel we’d been in a similar situation before – like in India a few months ago – proving that married men with 3 daughters should never be allowed out on their own because they metamorphisize into wankdom!
So I left him to it and went and had a look at what was else was going on.
And what did I find?
Errrrm, see points 1-4 above.
Luckily after an hour or so, it was time for me to do my speech with Pete from Crispin’s – so I turned my back on ad-ego-hell and headed into the cauldron of ‘what’s-so-fucking-special-about-you? conference.
As you would expect from the most pragmatic creative agency currently operating in the World, they attracted an audience who demanded to be challenged, entertained and informed and for the next 45 minutes did out very best to do just that.
Whether we actually achieved our goal is open to debate, but they seemed very happy at the end and were genuinely interested in our view that if advertising was to survive, it would be dependent on us finding creative answers to clients business problems, not just thinking an ad is always the best – or right – solution.
To demonstrate this, we talked about the recent motorbike brief we had been given … how we’d designed jumbo jet interiors for Virgin … why the British M.O.D. asked us to create none-harmful weaponry … then we invited the wonderful Nigel Marsh – CEO of Leo’s in Australia – to talk about the Earth Hour campaign which he not only communicated, but conceived as well.
It all led to an interesting debate and more and more I think Rob M’s idea of a summit/conference/tea-party on this matter is vital because there are still too people with their heads in the sand believing a 30 second bit of film can solve all the problems in the World.
After that I just ponced around … saw friends, ate AMAZING food, picked up 2 bronze and 1 gold Lion/s in the print category [well, the guys in our team did and a massive congrats to them for that] then I picked up George from the bar and made sure he got home/hotel.
So here I am at 1:34am Frog time in my room, unbelievably ready for bed.
All in all it has been an OK day … but tomorrow is where it really kicks off and I am happy to say I am meeting Russell for a nice cup of tea to ensure that with all the festivities, Mr Angry from Nottingham doesn’t develop an advertising ‘luvvy’ streak, ha!
It’s absolute and total wank … but as absolute and total wank goes, it’s fun!
[Yes Andy, lots of people asked me how you were. Happy now???]