So Cannes has happened and while there some genuine pieces of excellence were rightfully awarded, there was – as I feared – some utter bullshit given shiny awards when they should have been thrown out and humiliated for bringing the whole industry into disrepute.
I’ve written about how awards encourage agencies to humiliate themselves and I’ve written about how the award organisers could help stop this happen … but it’s not really surprising that my voice is ignored.
Not just because no one reads this blog or that a sparrow has more credibility than I do, but because agencies, clients and awards organisers are co-dependents, each offering something the other party wants and needs for their own ego and value.
Clients need to feel they are doing something unique in the category.
Agencies need to let their clients think they are working with someone who can do things others aspire to doing.
[Not to mention needing to think we’re uber-creative despite being our own client & audience]
Award Organisers need agencies to feel their accolade is more important and valuable than everyone else’s so they can keep the money rolling in.
It’s honestly like the Emperor’s new clothes, but what makes it especially annoying is that even an Australian Television program can see how futile and pointless it all is, which goes to show another problem with our industry.
We say we ‘get culture’ but we can’t even hear them when they’re shouting in our faces.