D&AD 2018 – DEATH BY PENCIL 💎

Finally recovered from three days of D&AD…. an orgy of advertising excellence, profundity and weapons-grade bullshit.

Held at the Truman Brewery in hipster-infested Brick Lane, the planet’s top industry award festival and show did not disappoint. The highlight for me was hanging with hero Dave Trott, the granddaddy/Godfather of Great British adverting. Trotty slammed it. Expectations were high from this industry icon but last week, he really nuked it from orbit. As the main keynote closing day one, he barked brilliance at the mustachioed and moccacino-eyed millennial horde on how the whole fucking point of advertising was to make mischief and get noticed. The snowflake agency ethos of today seems so overburdened by diversity, equality, inclusivity and cuddliness means that creatives are afraid of saying anything remarkable in case they offend anyone. The result is that most ads look like they were written for a class project in ethnocentrism and approved by a Gender Studies poly lecturer.

Of course there are exceptions… and that’s what I was there to see.

In total, 732 Pencils have been awarded this year, with five Black Pencils – the highest accolade – dished out. Two of these deservedly went to ‘We’re the Superhumans’ by 4Creative and Blink for Channel 4/Paralympics, with the other three going to ‘Meet Graham’ by Clemenger BBDO Melbourne for Transport Accident Commission Victoria, ‘The Swedish Number’ by INGO Stockholm for The Swedish Tourist Association, and ‘DOT’. the first Braille Smartwatch’ by Serviceplan/Serviceplan Korea for Dot Incorporation.

Alas even here, virtue signaling was rewarded en masse. Take the Skittles campaign for last year’s Pride event in London. I mean it’s a nice idea but it not exactly planet quaking. If your brand property is a rainbow then it’s not much of a jump to play on that for gay pride. What unites the Black Pencil-winning projects is a clear desire to create a better world through cleverness, class and craft. But why is that seeming in such short supply? Maybe Trotty is right. We seem to have forgotten that the purpose of advertising is to shock and sell. We have a responsibility to use our ideas to drive sales and amplify brand value… not play social justice warrior on our clients’ budget.

For a serious emotional connection, look at Through The Dark, an interactive music video for Hilltop Hoods caught her eye. Released through Google Play Music and created by R/GA Sydney, this poignant animation managed to reduce a room full of hardened, cynical creatives almost to tears. It wasn’t just something new, but something beautifully executed… a music video that does something very different to what you’d expect a music video to do. Other personal favorites were Apple (kudos to MJZ LA) and Nike who just went onto prove that in advertising and in just about everything else… NOTHING BEATS A LONDONER.