CANNES LIONS – THE ORGY OF EGOS
JEEEESUZ! They said Cannes was expensive and they’re fricking right. My Amex bill and it looks like Johnny Depp’s bar tab for Pirates.
At least I’m in good company. My old boss the Dark Lord (aka Sir Martin Sorrell) said that the jury is out on whether WPP will attend next year following Publicis’ decision to pull out. He moaned about the ‘gouging that goes on and there is peak time pricing. Cannes in June is not the cheapest place in the world to be”. I’ll say: £12 for a coke, £20 for a slice of pizza and don’t get me started on the line into Bâoli.
It was great to catch up with friend and Cannes vet Andy Carroll big shout out to Soundfly and the Elements crew from LA. We hit the right parties and relaxed on his yacht.
I had fun. As the sun sank on La Croisette, the bottles of Dom Pérignon grew from magnums to methuselahs. Sparkly fireworks accompanied the opening of each new bottle. More and more Russian girls arrived. Then after the usual trawl of beach parties, it was pole position at the Carlton Bar.
It ended up being a very fun trip. I had a dozen or so clients that wanted to catch up. For the rest I loaded up on business cards and hung out at the Carlton Beach and the usual parties. I wanted to give the schmoozing a rest so I could spend more time on the work. So it wasn’t all sunshine and rosé.
My fav campaigns to get metal were:
Channel 4 – We’re the Superhumans
Tough call changing people’s attitudes to disability. This campaign for the 2016 Paralympic Games wasn’t just an ad campaign. C4 ran a competition for a brand featuring people with disabilities to win £1 million of airtime. Mars won it with an ad for Maltesers.
Amnesty International – The Refugee Nation
A new team entered the Olympic Games in Rio last year. Refugee Nation was made up of 10 displaced people from around the world. It attracted global media coverage. The buzz led to stores and restaurants using stickers to show that they welcome refugees.
Burger King – Google Home of the Whopper
Burger King decided to use Google’s voice technology to its own advantage. It showed a guy holding a burger and saying: “You’re watching a 15-second Burger King ad, which is unfortunately not enough time to explain all the fresh ingredients in the Whopper sandwich, but I got an idea. Okay Google, what is the Whopper burger?” The result? Google Home reacted by reading out the Whopper’s Wikipedia entry. It got media coverage way beyond BK’s initial media outlay.
Naturally there was more than the usual level of scamminess. While this isn’t the first time there’s been some controversy over work that won an award, and every year someone gripes about ads that only ran once in Uzbekistan in Boy Scout Weekly just so it could be submitted. This year was no exception, but two entries found themselves in the merde.
I was in Cannes for the film festival and back for the Lions. Now I have total withdrawals from the Riviera. And that ginormous amex bill to settle. Plus some time on my hands as a big project just cancelled.
Happily I’m thoroughly inspired and my muses are arriving in limos. So if you need a hand on a pitch or a treatment, give me a call on +44 7512 904586.
Let’s get busy!
