Nigel Dawson’s Cannes Diary: Day Five
Nigel Dawson, ECD at Grey Melbourne is Australia’s representative on the Cannes Lions Press jury. Dawson, along with most of the Australian and NZ jurors, is of course reporting exclusively for CB.
Day 32.
Au revoir Dr. Jekyll; bonjour Monsieur Hyde.
Apologies for slipping out of character for the past few blogs; here’s what I really think. For there is as much to glean from the occasional disagreement as from the prevailing unanimity.
It’s curious terminology isn’t it – judges, juries. As if we were here to dissect crimes against advertising. But the main offenders have been convicted long before they can arrive in Cannes. Even so there is the odd piece that sails dangerously close to the wind.
A fellow juror despairs at ‘things made out of things’: people made out animals, buildings made out of germs, that sort of thing. And I have to agree in many cases – once again they represent the triumph of form over substance, though there are exceptions, such as the flags from Argentina. Then there’s the epidemic of small, usually angry, 3D figures, advertising everything from shampoo to bookshops. Shiny and forgettable.
I found it hugely disappointing to see the lion’s share of our shortlist duplicated in Outdoor. How these press ads with their complex images and small logos could possibly communicate in the great outdoors beggars belief.
Inevitably there was one ad about which I completely disagreed with my fellow good men (and women) and true. A piece for texting and driving from Brazil. They argued innovation and a unique look: I saw only an ad with no emotive connection.
Then I mumbled at the pragmatists that wouldn’t let two of us push up a Red Cross ad full of delicate compassion. Oh, and another that showed creepily how alcohol can affect one’s kids.
Copy. Some seem to think that loads of words equals good copywriting. Others looked favorably at linguistic gymnastics that made little sense. Frankly the problem is judges to whom English is a second language judging work that has been translated from another language. Impossible. The outstanding entrant from NZ that was the perfect marriage of the skills of the writer and typographer.
Well that’s got all that off my chest. Now for a big long holiday during which only one thing I have seen will resonate.
Benetton.