IS D&AD STILL BIASED TOWARDS THE POMS? YOU DECIDE
Looking through the list of D&AD In Book, one cannot help notice the massive bias towards the Poms. Compared to other international shows – Cannes, The One Show and Cio – where the UK consistently gets less than 20 percent of the winners and finalists, at D&AD this percentage is over 50 percent (79 Nominations out of world total of 151), and 257 In Book out of a world total of 564, a statistical impossibility if the judging was fair.
Despite opening up the juries to the world a couple of years ago, each jury at D&AD is still dominated by English creatives and this has got to change if D&AD is to lose this strong suspicion of bias. Otherwise, the world’s ad agencies would be wise to direct their award funds to the other shows.
COUNTRY LEAGUE TABLE AT D&AD
1. UK – 79 Nominations, 257 In Book
2. USA – 26 Nominations, 78 In Book
3. Germany – 11 Nominations, 42 In Book
4. South Africa – 5 Nominations, 12 In Book
5. Japan – 4 Nominations, 25 In Book
6. Singapore – 3 Nominations, 24 In Book
7. Brazil – 4 Nominations, 8 In Book
8. Australia – 16 In Book
9. Malaysia – 1 Nomination, 11 In Book
10. New Zealand – 2 Nominations, 7 In Book
10. Sweden – 2 Nominations, 7 In Book
12. Thailand – 1 Nomination, 7 In Book
12. India – 1 Nomination, 7 In Book
12. Spain – 1 Nomination, 7 In Book
12. France – 9 In Book
18 Comments
Maybe its because the Brits produce the best work?
Which they do.
And maybe it’s because its a show held in Britain, to recognise British work, produced by the British industry.
Right on, 105. It’s only because we’re largely lead by sad-arsed expats trying to convince their mates back in Blighty that they haven’t failed by coming here that D&AD has such currency. I mean Christ… do Kiwi musos enter the British music awards? Can we, just possibly, grow up and act like a proper country instead of an insecure former colony? I say we start by taking Catmur, Talbot and O’Sullivan’s farms and handing them over to the workers. Worked in Zimbabwe. Freeeeedom!
Which it is.
Fair enough. But why open the award to other countries? And why bother inviting foreign judges? And if the work is so good why doesn’t it do better at awards overseas. And if the work is done for the UK why do the Poms bother entering the work overseas. In fact why does anyone bother entering ads in ad awards overseas?
maybe it’s just ‘cos everyone in the business is a fuckin pom.
Which it is.
maybe they don’t like scam work
Nah, it’s because the ads made in Britain have production values, which is why they were all very happy when the ‘make five for the price of three’ CDs came to NZ.
Team, I am feeling a lot of hostility to the poms. Come on now. It’s not all the money they are making and the awards they are winning. It’s the fish they are taking out of the ocean on the weekends we should be worried about. Maybe the blokes complaining here should start doing award winning work and get some of those jobs back eh? Only when we pack those poms off home will our fish stocks be able to replenish themselves. Oliver Maisey doens’t have to go. He hates fishing.
When I think of Poms I think of sweaty crutches and stink nobs.
Did you mean sweaty crotch as in damp underpants area?
I know that D&AD have cracked down on scam ads and now double check the ads and if they ran.Sort of scews a lot of agencies here.More budget, more respect for agencies, more respect for clients, more talent (if you good you stay there), more time, more quality control. Equals better advertiisng.
Hey 3.50 can I do a campaign about the chip on your shoulder. You wont have to pay a thing. I’ll get some mates to make the ads on the back of a job I am doing for some of the pommy creative directors you like so much
Looking at The One Show finalist list, the “home team” USA has around 30 percent with the rest of the world a healthy 70 percent, despite US creatives dominating the juries. The UK has around 7 percent of the finalist list with 27 finalists – only a little ahead of NZ (21 finalists) and Australia (17 finalists). In future, I’d put my entry fees into The One Show rather than D&AD.
Does not compute..
11.54 i think what 3.50 is saying is it is easier to produce a better creative product in the uk than here by the way the industry is structured.I tend to agree.In nz we have a bad record of scam ads payed for by the agencies themselves and that is what we see in overseas awards and local. But i think it is getting better, i think the cd’s around town have relised they look a bit silly and have sorted their shit out. Especially some of the uk ones.To the future and to the end of scam ads i say.Thenumbersman.P.S. I would just like to take my hat off to Duster for making a stand, good on you. Axis is a back rubbing session.