Steffan Postaer, Cannes delegate
Saturday, June 21, 2008 - I'm at the Leo Burnett party (another global disco affair, this time at the Palm Casino). A German creative director—I’ll call him Deitloff—asks me how I’m doing. I say I’m doing fine, it’s the south of France, the weather is fine, my wife and I haven’t fought in days. … Deitloff stops me. “No, I mean how are you doing with ze Lions?” Oh. That. Well, I tell him, “I got my clock cleaned.” Probably not understanding the reference, he walks off into the laser strobes wondering what the hell is wrong with these Americans.
Deitloff’s sweaty, German intensity about winning Lions bears discussion. Because, there is, and always will be, an obsessive majority of Lion hunters at Cannes. Indeed, around the world, so many creative departments are shaped around this festival. A former colleague told me his current agency in Paris assembles a group of its most promising creatives six months in advance of Cannes, and its only job is to develop creative to win at Cannes. How it works is the creative is done for current clients without their knowledge and then introduced to them later, packaged with other work from another brief. In America we call this “pork.”
What do you think, Gentle Reader? Is this a brilliant strategy or a bogus move? Either way, it does increase the chances of winning. It also is a breeding ground for scam ads or what the French agencies like to call “ghosts.” If bunches of beautiful campaigns are done in advance of Cannes, and only a few get bought by real clients, what happens to all those beautiful adverts standing in line? They sneak in.
According to my source, even those that do get “bought” by the client are often masquerading as legitimate. In fact, the client has only given the work his tacit approval. The agency pays for its production. If the client has offered any money whatever it generally has come from another budget’s slush fund. Pork. No wonder, then, so many glorious two-page spreads at the festival but not in magazines and newspapers!
Often this “legitimate” advertising gets a free ride to the awards ceremony because the real fake ads are considered the ones for law firms and restaurants, small businesses that clearly have no advertising budgets.
But scam ads take many forms. When Lion hunting is taken very seriously, there is likely to be some poaching. Ask Deitloff, if you can pry him from the dance floor.
Friday, June 20, 2008 - Not sure I'm in
agreement over the selection for the Print Grand Prix here at Cannes.
The campaign is for Energizer batteries, and it hails from DDB South
Africa in Jo’burg. Posters show children engaging in bad behavior
toward their brothers, sisters and other random souls. Things like
painting the dog or spitting on pedestrians from the rooftops. The copy
implores us to “Never let their toys die.” They are nifty stories
supposing a world in which batteries run out.
Don’t get me wrong;
these executions are well done. Very well done. Maybe even gold. I get
it, and I like it. But is this the very finest print work in the
festival or in the world? And is the printed medium even the best place
to tell these stories? Full-page spreads for batteries just doesn’t
click for me. Something seems awry.
Today I see that Altoids has
short-listed in Film. This work, from Energy BBDO in Chicago, is for a
brand very near and dear to my heart. Having created the “Curiously
Strong Mints” campaign in North America for this brand and managing the
creative for more than 10 years, naturally, my emotions are mixed. I
think the commercials are beautifully done, well-crafted, quirky,
charming, lots of good things. But they are not “curiously strong,” and
so a Lion would surprise me. Still, they are on the shortlist;
something, even with my best work, I was seldom able to garner for
Altoids. For that, they deserve my respect and admiration … even if I
am hoping they fall short of gathering any Lions!
Thursday, June 19, 2008 - There is
business being conducted in Cannes. Even if it is disguised as revelry
or covered in suntan oil, there are deals getting done … or undone.
Relationships are forged between old clients and new agency contacts
and visa versa. Without naming names (sorry), I find myself walking
back to my hotel with the CEO of a rival agency. As it turns out, we
both are meeting with the same client but at different times during the
week. Should have been awkward, yet it wasn’t. Not as much as you’d
think, anyway. True, one of us would likely have a better meeting than
the other, with different outcomes. Yet, I didn’t feel like much of an
adversary, and nor, I felt, did he. Maybe it was the bright sunshine
and warm temperatures, conspicuously absent since our arrival. Or
deeper still, perhaps we both knew that shit happens in advertising,
that all business is cyclical. Another view would suggest that the main
competition was up the street in the Palais.
Counting Lions is one way to win in Cannes.
But having a perfect client meeting is surely another.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008 - One of the
prevailing topics in Cannes, surprisingly, is whether this festival is
… justifiable. I struggle choosing that last word the way many here
struggle with the pull and push of Cannes. I’ve overheard or
participated in several conversations basically asking the question:
“Why are we here?” (Funny, these ambivalent opinions are seldom brought
up in the weeks before the festival. Methinks we all want our feet
planted firmly on the Croissette before questioning why!)
Many
(myself included) have a love/hate relationship with Cannes. We love
the south of France. We enjoy seeing all our friends and peers in the
business, as well as meeting new ones. And the quantity and quality of
creativity from around the world is, indeed, inspiring.
But—and
it’s a big hairy but—do we really need a weeklong party in southern
France? Is that justifiable? A member of the trade press told me he
spent last night wining and dining with the same handful of people he
sees every day at work. Put that way, the festival does seem
gratuitous.
But it is also a celebration of what makes our
business so terrific in the first place: creativity. Here, we cannot
help but be reminded of that. And it’s a reminder many in our business
probably need. Which is why I am thrilled to be joined by more and more
clients and members of our own management teams. Doing exceptional work
is a big deal. And making it is one of the most rewarding “jobs” in the
world. Cannes is living proof.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008 - Met with Gary Smith, reporter for the Cannes Lions Daily
(the festival’s newspaper), to discuss my workshop at the Palais on
Friday. The workshop is entitled “Inspiring Belief: Turning Consumers
Into Believers.” The central idea is that advertisers need to go beyond
communicating a strategic framework if they hope to engender a
passionate following for their brands. We’ll look at how religion makes
this happen for their “brands” and what implications this has on the
future of marketing.
Think about the creative mythology behind
Christianity. Among his many miracles, Jesus Christ was able to walk on
water. His disciples were compelled to “do unto others…” Is it
blasphemous to suggest modern-day advertisers need to model their
messaging the same way? Nike would have us believe not. With a pair of
shoes, Michael Jordan could walk on air. And by donning a pair of Air
Jordans, so can we. A miracle! “Just do it” has become the clarion call
for an entire nation. We are devoted to sports like never before, and
Nike is the reason. Michael Jordan was our “messiah.” More recent
communications ask us not to merely watch LeBron James play basketball
but to “bear witness.”
I continue to be
fascinated by creative propaganda and the parallels it has with cults,
movements and religion. These themes are central to my blog,
Godsofadvertising, as well as my upcoming novel, The Happy Soul
Industry. I believe the overlap is unavoidable in our business. Nor
should it be.
Besides Nike, we have seen this phenomenon working with other
brands—Apple, Harley-Davidson, Altoids. Can you name some more?
Starbucks managed to become a church for its customers without
advertising much at all. But now they are losing share. What will their
approach be now that they need advertising?
Hard as it is reaching such branding nirvana, I believe advertisers
must aspire to do so in order to compete in a crowded and noisy
marketplace. Chasing gold Lions is but a pagan ritual compared to this
loftiest of goals. Yet, the best ideas on earth will be the ones that
do so. Amen!
Monday, June 16, 2008 - Cannes hasn't even started yet and I'm
half way across the Atlantic when I realize I forgot my shaving kit at
home. Panic at 30,000 feet! Like many of us, my toiletries, medicine,
etc., are in that bag. After uselessly bothering the flight attendants
with my problem (“Is there a doctor on board?”), I come up with a
reasonable plan: Call our head of PR, Eric Edge and have him retrieve
the bag from my house and bring it to Cannes on his flight the next
day. While it’s after 11 p.m. in Chicago, I have no choice but to call
him. Meds.
The next day Eric and I meet in the hotel lobby. I
thank him profusely, shaking his hand while shaking the dop kit.
Salvation is at hand.
“Good thing. You need to shave,” my wife
says. It’s true. I was accidentally starting to look like I
purposefully didn’t shave—a look, incidentally, which is very popular
with creative types. I was beginning to look like every man in Cannes.
But my scruffy isn’t the same as European scruffy. Or even Asian
scruffy. I can’t pull it off.
And then I discover I’d forgotten to put my electric shaver in the dop kit.
Yes, this is the beginning of Cannes.
—Steffan Postaer is chairman and chief creative officer of Euro RSCG Chicago and a Cannes delegate.
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