Nobby’s Cannes Diary – part two
David ‘Nobby’ Nobay, creative chairman of Droga5, Sydney, is sitting on the Direct jury.He’s just finished day two of judging and writes exclusively forCampaign Brief in Cannes this year.Other jurors will be contributing exclusively to the CB AsiaBlog over the next week, so make sure you check in regularly…
AdvertisingGods be praised! The inky clouds over the Croisette have parted and thefamous azure skies are blue again. I can almost hear the communal roarof cheer from my industry brethren back home. Almost.
Betterstill, the bad brand karma of yesterday has reversed, and I find myselflet off early from class by our Chairman Pablo thanks to my group’s”unfeasibly brisk judging”. Of course, I’d happily take credit for allthis, but I suspect it has more to do with this morning’s ratherwoefully shite category “Direct Ambient”, which apparently meansanything not flat. As in, not an envelope. Although, if said envelopeis 8ft long and left in a Buenos Aires park, that’s fine too.
Today’s theme seemed to be fire. We saw towels that looked like hotcoals, a real fire set on the back of a pizza delivery boy’s moped tostress “our pizzas always arrive hot” (assuming said delivery boydoesn’t go up in flames on the way), and my personal favourite; aflaming welcome card given out to campers in the middle of the woods toalert them to the dangers of…well, strangely, naked flames.
Another noteworthy anomaly: a considerable percentage of said categoryseemed to come from that, until now, little known marketing hotspot,Colombia (pronounced, it seems, Coluuuuuuumbia). Hat’s off to them, Isay. Clearly buoyed on by their nation’s greatest national treasure,they pounded on with fantastical verve through some staggeringly longand impassioned case studies, one lasting for, I swear, 20 minutes.Given how cheap the good stuff must be there, you’d think the fuckingnarrator could have talked faster. But that’s my only minor gripe.
Nothing specific to report by way of results, as we don’t get thecollective shortlist until tomorrow. That said, I have a sneaky feelingI’ll be allowed back into Oz, and even New Zealand too, given thestandard of work I’ve seen from our region in the rooms. What we lackin India and China’s ability to amass crowds of thousands aroundshopping centre ambient objects in minutes, we more than make up forwith, well, ideas. Not that I haven’t seen some decent stuff from thoseemerging markets too, just not in such concentration. That said, don’twant to jinx it now, so I better change the subject.
Left with nothing to do for lunch, and no-one fun to play with (they’vewisely separated the smart-arses on the jury into separate votinggroups) I did the only professional thing I could think of, andpromptly booked a massage at the Carlton Spa. 60 minutes later, I wasawoken from boozy snores by a rather stocky lady in a dentist smock,who presented me with a bill I can only assume is in Italian Lire.After all, if it is in EURO, I’d like to think I’d be woken by morethan a brisk nudge and a glass of water. But, hey, when in Rome…
Friday’s a funny day in Cannes. Definitely, the “calm before thestorm”. You can almost smell the approaching advertising hordes (or atleast the Paco Rabanne and beer farts), who, I assume start guzzlingrose late tomorrow afternoon, sometime. For now, us early judges (or”Special Forces Recon”, as I rather sadly described us as to a confusedlocal the other day) are left to savour the relative tranquility of asleepy Croisette. Even the real, authentic locals, revealed by theiruncannily orange skin, red suede shoes, hatred of immigrants andpink-gold mobiles, haven’t yet legged it up into the hills.
I spotted a scary crowd of Russian mafia types in the Carlton lobbyearlier, too. Then again, it could be the Media Jury. Difficult tojudge this time of year.
Right that’s it for me. I have to have a nap, and try to conjure up a client business meeting to explain that bill from the Spa.
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