Having been once before to Cannes, Tommy and I were a little weary of some of the obvious traps the Fest offers. Despite no sleep, possible deep vein thrombosis, already aching kidneys and a desperate need for a change of undies, we headed straight to the line and got ourselves registered for the fun and games ahead. Squinting a little in the unfamiliar warm sun, we looked at Cannes and she then looked straight back at us and said, “Bonjour. I am going to fuck you up”. You see, Cannes is kinda like a beautiful outdoor version of a Casino, where time and space quickly lose all meaning and waiters with alcohol are everywhere. The sun goes down at 10pm at night, things don’t close, plus the fashions and attitudes of the locals are awesome. Here is a brief snapshot of a conversation between a French waiter and five Aussies.
Male Cannes waiter: Bonjour. Monsieurs. Please where are you all from?
Tom: um... Australia.
Male Cannes waiter: Ah. Australia. I like your look.
(Awkward silence)
First mistake. Two days before the festival has even started, we called Grant “Rubba” Rutherford, ECD of the DDB Melbourne and judge extraordinaire of Radio Lions, for a quiet beer and to watch a bit of the World Cup at around 4pm. Cut to nine hours later after 20 beers and five bottles of Champagne. This was Cannes on a quiet night.
Second mistake. The next day, hungover and still sleep deprived, we schlepped our way into a small cinema to watch four hours of Titanium entries. According to the videos presented, all the world’s newspapers, TV channels, blogs and social media networks just talk about how awesome advertising ideas are. Social issues, war, famine, politics have no place anymore in the news. And no one, we repeat no one, spends a cent on media. The sentence “the idea couldn’t be contained and spread by itself like wildfire” could be on a t-shirt here. Even after only the small pile of entries we watched, it became clear that the best ideas didn’t brag about how liked or seen they were, they just explained the ideas clearly and briefly. People literally applauded at some (and I’m sure the videos felt very proud) and shook their heads at others.
And quickly losing track of time it wasn’t long before we suddenly found ourselves sitting in some seats at the first night of awards (wasn’t it Saturday like a paragraph ago?). Every year they have a presenter who we call “Mr International” who runs out like Tony Barber from Sale of the Century (but in a tuxedo) with an accent that sounds like he’s spent a day in every country of the world. He proudly roars “Ladies and Gentleman, Madames and Monsieurs, Bienvenue, Wilcommen and Welcome to the 2010 Cannes Advertising Festival!” and the show begins. And this year, the Promo, Direct and PR awards were absolutely dominated by Australians left right and centre. The big Aussie winner, Toyota’s “Nothing soft gets in”, was a real crowd pleaser. There’s a genuine love of Aussie humour here as they watch our stuff and go, “Are you even allowed to say that?” and then burst out laughing. The tweeting 4320 LA work of Virgin from Droga cleaned up like a broom as did Leo’s Photochain and thankfully Support Scent done by Tom and myself. I suspect we all owe a serious debt to the Aussie judges as the backroom politics at Cannes are notorious.
More later.Julian & Tom