Grant’s Cannes Diary – part one & two
GrantRutherford, executive creative director of DDB Melbourne, is sitting on this year’s Radio jury. He’s just finished day one ofjudging and writes exclusively for Campaign Brief…
Tomake this update more interesting dear reader I suggest you cusp a handto your ear and read aloud in your best Don LaFontaine voice-over,voice. And bear with me.
Day one has been an interesting day to say the least. Our lovelyjury chairman Paul Lavoie, founder of Taxi in Toronto (now with officeselsewhere including New York) asked us to find a body of work thatcelebrates the continued relevance of the medium.
Themedium, after all, has the power to stimulate our imagination, conjureimages of other worlds and make those experiences personal.
Unfortunately the entrants weren’t thinking the same thing when entering half this stuff.
Radio’srelative affordability means that entries are up this year to 1,200.One thousand two hundred! Bloody hell. I know other juries have towatch thousands more but when was the last time you heard a trulymemorable radio ad that made you jump out of bed, grab your
laptop and with trembling fingers craft a singular piece of prose worthy of Wordsworth?
So far I’m less than inspired and I think my ears are starting to bleed. But it is only day one.
Todaywe spit in to two groups and listened to around 350 spots. We evenlooked at some. Looked at radio ads? The relatively modern art of theentry hasn’t escaped this mostly audible medium. In some ways it hashelped explain ideas but I mostly closed my eyes and imagined what wason the screen. It seemed to help.
But this iswhere I must end it. I’m off to judge again in about 15 minutes. Hopethe booming voice-over thing helped you get through. I know it helpedme.
And tomorrow I’ll have something important to say.
DAY TWO.
For something new, try reading this update aloud with headphones on in a silky smooth Barry White style voice with Porno music playing in the background.
Day two was a good day. Just when I thought we’d trawled the depths of human despair, the average radio spot turns out to be good, if not great. I can’t and won’t talk for the other jurors but there seemed to be a collective sigh of relief from under headphones. Maybe it was because we all had a good night’s sleep but I think it had to do with the categories were judging. They were much better.
There also seemed to be some major themes running through the entries and major techniques. There are an awful lot of anti-aging spots, ads about dogs, ads about incontinence, ads that displayed how fast something is, ads that were recorded down the telephone and ads that use a known song but where they’ve stupidly changed the lyrics.
In fact, if there was an ad for dog food where an incontinent dog starts off old and gets audibly younger through the ad speaking really fast down a telephone all to the tune of ‘Eye of the Tiger’ then it would have to be a shoe-in for the Grand Prix. It would also have no 15 second disclaimer at the end. I hate disclaimers.
Anyway, I’m off again. The next round is the short list round. It’s going to be fun, there is going to be a lot of debate and there is going to be more debate. I could be in for a long day.