Todd Grant, Cannes delegate

Friday, June 20, 2008 - Great night. Running into all the usual suspects and some wonderful new culprits as well. And that has maybe been the unofficial theme of this year’s festival: the well-established creative shops jostling alongside contemporary offerings like Lean Mean Fighting Machine, Turner Duckworth, Projection Tokyo and 42 Entertainment Pasadena, which has no apparent relation to 72andSunny.
  And that’s what I really enjoy about the experience here: the paradigm shifts, intense lobbying and highly subjective fashion show to determine the eventual winners.
  Everyone votes with a secret device, but we all talk about it the night before. Unlike The One Show, Communication Arts, D&AD and most other shows, Cannes is all about the week and the subjective goings on therein, which is what makes it truly unique.
  The shortlist for Titanium is swirling about: will McCann/TAG recoup their early hype and win with Halo? Will BBDO New York sustain their recent momentum and win with Voyeur? Will Crispin do it again? Or will Lean Mean Fighting Machine surprise everyone and steal the show?
  It’s hard to predict, obviously. But I can tell you my hero for the week:
  Moussa, the nice man with the polka-dot bow-tie cooking amazing crepes just shy of the Gutter Bar. Within earshot of the debate and various discussions about all the cool things we’re working on, this man makes amazing late-night food, with a kind smile and no advertising whatsoever. Just a truck, a small sign and in this case a fortunate word-of-mouth recommendation from my friend Parag.
  Nutella, a dash of sugar, a little Grand Marnier and a line 10 deep for over three hours.
  The Grand Prix for gastronomy at 3 in the morning.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008 - I'm wondering why the music is generally lousy here at Cannes. Seriously. We're at one of the premier festivals on the planet, and the music so far wouldn’t even make the grade in Fresno. The official Tuesday-night beach party had five women on stage in white dresses singing Celine Dion-inspired American Idol hybrid not-really-in-harmony ditties. Maybe it was intended to be funny, like how the French think Jerry Lewis is funny?
My hopes are much higher for this evening, when there will be more party competition, and I’m guessing that Massive Music will put forth something refreshingly opposite to what went down last night.
  The Gutter Bar was strangely quiet last night. I’m also guessing that will change soon.
The honored work is interesting and predictable in a good way. BBDO’s “Voyeur” work for HBO is probably my favorite so far and took the Grand Prix in Outdoor and Promo. I didn’t really understand the Direct winners all that well, but then again, I never really do.
  I seem to be one of many people here having extreme technology difficulties. Can’t check voicemail, can’t text, can’t even see who called and/or texted me to skirt the system and still find a way to communicate with those leaving messages I’m not returning.
  I can, however, throw my phone against a wall when the various technology winners are announced and I’m still unable to use my digital device.
  But I’m having fun, really! It’s great seeing people I haven’t seen all year, catching up and bumming cigarettes. Also, I wouldn’t be caught dead drinking rose in Seattle, but here it tastes oddly perfect.
  Cheers. More later.

—Todd Grant is an executive creative director at Cole & Weber United and a Cannes delegate.

June 20, 2008 | Permalink