Cannes Lions: The heard & the overheard

Disunited States of India

“Latin America is a continent that behaves like a country, we are a country that behaves like a continent,” says Prathap Suthan, founder, Bang in the Middle, and judge at the Outdoor category at the Cannes Lions.

Even before he set out for Cannes, Suthan had received a handsome dossier called 'Killer work from Latin America’. In spite of there being some recent change in his office address, the parcel reached him in time.

On the other hand, Indian agencies, coming off a particularly vicious round of infighting post Goafest, have made no attempt subtle or otherwise to familiarise judges from even their own country, let alone an international jury, with their work.

Suthan believes the Outdoor awards were an almost defiant return to the category after years in which the definition was broadened to include just about any work with an out-of-home component.

Last year, there were two Grand Prix: one for a conventional billboard on Coca-Cola and the other for a technology driven project for Mercedes, titled ‘Invisible Car’.

Pest Foot Forward

An old complaint, but still relevant: Indian award presentations are subpar. In the PR category, judge Dilip Cherian, founder of Perfect Relations, claims he’s seen internal agency credentials that have been put together with more care and diligence than some of the films sent in for the awards.

Show Us the Media

The winners in Media and PR categories are mainly ad agencies. Media agencies typically don’t have the production chops to create a sexy AV for the awards and PR agencies, which typically work on smaller margins, often don’t have the production budgets.

All in all, an opportunity for advertising shops to win more in categories where the bar is just a little lower — either in terms of number of entries or quality of presentation. It helps that Jury president on Media Jack Klues, chairman worldwide at Vivaki, says he’s changed his mind from a time when he believed only media agencies ought to win these awards.

Breast is Best

Juju Basu, who judged Direct Lions, claims the most popular buzzwords in the AVs for his category were in order of popularity, vending machines, millions, breasts and germs.