Grant’s Cannes Diary – part one
GrantRutherford, executive creative director of DDB Melbourne, is representingAustralia on the Radio jury. He’s just finished day one of judging andwrites exclusively for Campaign Brief. Other Aussie and Kiwi jurors will be contributingexclusively to the CB Blog over the next 10 days, so make sure youcheck in daily, hourly, every minute…
To makethis update more interesting dear reader I suggest you cusp a hand toyour 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.
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