The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

And I survived.

Better yet, the family … pooch … and my colleagues seemed relatively happy to see me, which is a massive win.

Plus the people with the birthdays, had good ones. Albeit maybe because I didn’t get to share it with them.

Anyway, Cannes was interesting.

I have a very weird relationship with it because while I love hearing great people talk … looking at some incredible work and seeing old friends, I do hate a lot of ‘the scene’.

The indulgence.
The egotism.
The excess.

That said, so much of that is now coming from people and companies who work in consultancies, tech, research or big multinationals – rather than ad agencies or companies who practice creativity in the truest sense of the word. Part of that is because they’re the only ones who can afford it … but it also reveals a chink in their ‘armor of confidence’. Evidence that for all their smarts, they’re desperate to feel admired, liked, wanted … without ever realizing their American Psycho approach to life attracts derision more than attraction.

At least for me.

I often wonder if all industry conference get-togethers create this sort of energy.

Do dentists/analysts/publishers [delete as appropriate] start to convince themselves they’re the Masters-Of-The-Universe when all packed tightly into one room?

As I said, Cannes is brilliant for the talks, the creativity and the ability to reconnect with old friends.

It’s nice to see a celebration of what we do when so often it faces a barrage of abuse from people who wouldn’t know creativity if it smashed them in the face.

But the vulgar displays of excess are less attractive to me.

As are the giant ads from tech/consultancy companies which are trying to position themselves as creative but end up demonstrating they’re the total opposite.

At least that’s slightly amusing, especially because you know it took them 6 months of board approval/design to make it happen.

But I digress …

I’m back.
I had a good time.
I’m thankful to WARC and Paula for making it happen.
I’m very happy to have seen some old friends after years.