Final round up part 7

Grand Prix for services to the global advertising industry: yes, finally we salute you Mr Cannes Gutter Bar Owner Man. Thanks to you, the industry can stay up all night discussing nothing in particular and then forget all about and come back and do it all again tomorrow. Cheers - and here's to next year.

Final round up part 6

Happiest couple in Cannes award: Dave that it's over. Judee that Smooth E got a well-deserved Gold. It was one of only four Asian Lions in TV. There was another gold from Creative Juice G1 Thailand for Bangkok Insurance. The other two lions were from Japan. However - thanks to the new Campaign Brief scoring system - a shortlist in TV is now worth about the same as a Silver in Print (30 points). So if you got one or more of those you should be happy too.

Final round up part 5

Most opulent traffic jam award: outside the Carlton Hotel. Just see those valet parking guys go.

Final round up part 4

The coolest book launch award goes to: Allen Rosenshine, BBDO Chairman. The party at the Martinez featured synchronized swimmers, the industry's A list and even an appearance from Woody Allen looking down on from his balcony on one of the upper floors of the hotel. Rumors that he couldn't get an invite were pure speculation. But you've got to wonder - why choose Cannes during the Ad Festival for a vacation?

Final round up part 3

The second happiest man in Cannes award goes to: David Ferrer (here with better half Reese). Early in the week, he had inexplicably not made the shortlists with JWT Manila's Greenpeace 'Trees' ad - a message about saving paper. He then saw it get voted Best Public Service Print Ad in, well, the World by the public - at the ACT exhibition next to the Palais. Good stuff Dave. What were those ballot slips printed on by the way? Just wondering.

Final round up part 2

The Happiest Man in Cannes Award goes to: Peter Souter. He was like this two days BEFORE he found out his agency AMV BBDO had deservedly won the Film Grand Prix with Guinness 'Noitulove.' Paul Brazier, Danny Kleinman and the team started their champagne celebration much more soberly on the night - with champagne on the Carlton terrace thanks to BBDO Asia Chairman Chris Thomas.

Final round up part 1

In which the Cannes diary comes to a close with some final awards. "Great effort and nice to have around" award goes to the Young Creative team of Cey and JP from Burnett who worked hard and were unlucky to see someone else get Silver with an idea they thought of but decided not to present. Oh well - I'm sure they're looking forward to giving the benefit of their experience to next year's team. Starting with: where to find rice to eat in Cannes.

La Chapelle at New Directors

Saatchis new directors showcase featured live dancers from a film by legendary photographer and film-maker David la Chapelle called Rise. A good selection of films this year presented by the evergreen Bob Isherwood. Well ever-white at least. Effects of too much rose and rich food beginning to kick in ... only two days to go now... but... slowing... down. This post at least 24 hours late. I hope to catch up with today, tomorrow.

Craig Leno in Cannes Celebrity Orgy

JWT Worldwide Creative Chief Craig Davis chaired a panel of three celebs: Martin Sheen, Arianna Huffington (arch political blogger) and Sex and the City creator Michael Patrick King on stage yesterday. They had five words each to summarize advise for ad people: Martin Sheen: Don't get caught doing it (what Jimmy Cagney used to advise actors); Arianna: make coitus-interruptus seem like coitus. Michael (six words): give more than what's asked for. Overall one of the best Cannes events yet. Possibly ever. As Richard Irvine put it: made it worth the trip on its own.

Swedish San Mig Mystery Man

Gustav the cyber judge from Sweden. Got the T-shirt a while ago and could never work out where it was from. He was on holiday in Spain he asked the locals if it was Spanish and they scratched their heads at the Tagalog - saying 'dunno maybe it's an anagram...' Happily I was able to solve the mystery for him. Just how it got to Sweden is another mystery altogether

Childhope campaign gets Lion. FedEx too.

Last night we picked up the country's first Lion in Radio. And the joint first Lion in Outdoor. Both Bronzes. This is one from the Childhope campaign. Not so easy to see the FedEx spot. But you can download from the link at the end. Congratulations to everyone at BBDO Guerrero Ortega. And especially to Raoul, Joel, Simon, Nats, Al and Vhie on Childhope, as well as Simon, Telly, Aldous, JP in Hong Kong and Vic and Dennis at Hit. We would like to celebrate with everyone when we all get back. FedEx link: http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=1F218F9760BD5143

Ogilvy's Bronze Winner

The line says: The Philippines' most committed newspaper. Congratulations Manny and Gavin (and anyone else I don't know about). Pepito: this is what the ad looks like. (Just kidding.) It's a great and surprising poster and beat off a lot of competition in a tough category. Well done all.

No wonder he's laughing

Out of 18 shortlist entries for country so far, this guy on the left is responsible for seven of them. Of course we won't get the outcome till tomorrow night. But worth celebrating all the same. Your round Joel.

Free at last

The Philippines' Young Creative competition team celebrate ending three days in captivity with a sponsored meal by PDI together with the rest of the delegation. They will find out tomorrow morning at 930 if their efforts in producing a cyber idea have resulted in a first victory for the country in this competition. Now go home and drink some hot chocolate. You've got a big day ahead.

Shock horror bribery scandal

Radio judging finished today a few hours ago. After days of headphone clad silence, two days of amazingly thorough and lively discussion. The judging infrastructure was flawless. As were the rules. Once on the shortlist or given an award, no piece of work can be downgraded. Only pushed up. And since the shortlist is published as you go, there's no changing your mind about any piece of work either. Naturally some judges then resorted to outright bribery as Ernesto Savaglio from Argentina's Savaglio\TBWA demonstrates here. How did he do? Well you can find out tomorrow.

One of the biggest discussions was about the Grand Prix. As I hear it was among at least one of the other juries. However at the end of the process we came out with an overwhelming favourite. And one that most of us can live with. I wonder if you can guess what it is? Meanwhile we have recognized an impressive spread of work - both conceptually and geographically. I feel we have looked at the category from first principles and looked to establish benchmarks across every category of work. We're also all full of ideas of how to tackle it next year. Trust me: this is a great medium to get involved with, right now. Just remember to bring plenty of unmarked bills if you get invited to judge.

The urban hell that is Cannes

And he only left it parked here for five minutes.

He promised her a romantic honeymoon in the south of France

Let's just hope neither of them are in advertising.

'Greatness lies not in the ideas you have but in those you throw away'

Neil French (shown here asking Andy Greenaway how to send a text) launches his World Press Awards today. (worldpressawards.com) The jury is stellar - with a major and recent Global Grand Prix being more or less the price of entry. And it's the only award show run by a world-famous creative person. Strangely enough no women among the 7-strong panel. But that's not a topic worth raising a this point. The site is well put together and the show should be great. Now all we need are some good ads...

Socceroo showdown

The entire Aussie and some of the Asian Cannes contingent was at the Martinez to see a hard-fought and scarcely deserved 2-0 victory for Brazil. No crowd trouble. Despite the result. Well apart from the usual suspects of course

Bob L'eponge

That's what they call him here. In case you were wondering. Works slightly better than Bob le Bricoleur. The gallic cousin of the 'can we fix it' man.

Shortlist done

Celebrating the completion of the shortlist with Mario D'Andrea (JWT Brazil) Jim Thornton (Burnett London) and Brett Morris (FCB Johannesburg). Three ads from The Philippines have made it this far. Tomorrow we start voting on the metal. Will everyone back home kindly keep their fingers crossed.

Actually we were trying to vote on everything today. But Brazil vs Australia intervened. The jury has split along predictable lines on this one - with Argentina and Philippines going solidly Aussie. While Brazil stayed quietly and as it turned out accurately confident of victory (as it turned out 2-0). The final Lions tally could be considerably greater than that.

Radio judges have it good: official

Some bleary eyed guys on the cyber jury came up to me at lunch. They've been working long hours for three days straight. Press and Outdoor have been pointing bar code scanners at ads in their thousands for 10 hours or more. On the other hand we've had about 4 or 5 hours a day of relaxed listening. And been done by around 3.30 both days. Tomorrow's the shortlist, which will likely be about 120 spots. And the great thing is everyone thinks we've got it tough.

Terry Savage, Cannes Chairman, reckons we've 'it's only a matter of time' before the radio competition takes off in a big way. So I guess our timing on this jury is pretty good. The work itself hasn't been too bad with some definite highlights along the way. Only heard three other entries from The Philippines so the rest must be in the other half of the jury. Fingers crossed a few of them make it through to tomorrow.

Big categories in the world's greatest medium: Fast food, travel and, um, sex shops. Favourite opening gambit: a phone rings to set off a dialog. Please don't do any jokes on automated answering machines either. Also big remaking famous songs in another musical genre. Actually this can work quite well. But leave the jaws soundtrack alone already.

International Ad Fest ‘getting too commercialized’

Catch up with Wing and Rob from South Africa for a drink and the last 20 minutes of the Netherlands vs Ivory Coast game. While judging we missed Argentina slamming 6 goals in against Serbia – including apparently ‘a goal that will be shown on TV for years to come.’ South Africa is hosting the next World Cup in 2010 and Rob (who did the ‘any color you can think of’ work for Dulux) claims he will be able to watch the matches from his house. Assuming of course that he’s not locked up again in a windowless room in Cannes.

They’re both slightly taken aback by the giant Africa sign on a side of the Palais that didn’t used to be used for giant signs. The continent's name has been appropriated by a Brazilian shop. And has probably spent more on self-promotion than any other agency in history. Still, the Brazilian judges I spoke to said it’s doing well – and will be entering work in competition here for the first time. We all bemoan the fact that the festival getting more corporate. Even Campaign has an editorial warning that Cannes is getting ‘too sensible.’ Then again it hasn’t started yet.

The word spreads

Kim Shaw has told his vast and secret mailing list about the blog. Which is unfortunate for two reasons. One, I have to buy him ‘a couple’ (vague technical term) of drinks in the Gutter Bar. The owners of this establishment – who’s name tells you everything you need to know except the price of the beer - maintain an island in the Caribbean and fly there promptly after the festival in private jets. Two, I now have to attempt to write something interesting for the rest of the week. Or go home early. Oh the pressure. I think I need a drink.

Titanium eat your heart out.

Apparently all those ‘you poor bugger’ jibes from certain members of the trade press have been taken to heart: we have been told to talk radio up. And why not. Our jury chairman has therefore proclaimed this is now the most important competition of the festival, with TV a distant second.

Big trends in the world’s most important medium: Bad French Accents; “unscripted” phone calls to unsuspecting victims and taping the results; situations that begin with ‘Dad I’m pregnant’ and risqué English translations from the European equivalents. Can they really get away with that at breakfast time?

The judging begins.

You take 16 people from around the world. You put them in a room. And then you plug them all silently into ‘ipaqs.’ Radio judging is different. The machine however is quite impressive. It plays the track. And then if you’re really keen – and the agency’s done it – you can hear the English version too. You can’t register a vote until you’ve heard it all the way through. Fair enough. Until you get to a campaign of 6 more or less identical spots. And you didn’t much like the first one.

Brazilian, German and, er, Belgian entries are among the most prolific. And the way it works is you listen to the spot in the original language while reading the English translation. So you can understand most of what’s going on without losing the performance of the original. I caught myself reading the English script on the Australian entries. Suddenly they all made sense.

Radio: Wave of the future

As the judge's dinner was drawing to a close (and after an England game which I unfortunately managed to see after getting the time wrong) Terry Savage, Cannes Head Honcho, tinkled his glass. After some niceties which went along the lines of: don't get too drunk tonight and don't be late tomorrow he proudly announced that despite all this talk of new media Press entries were up 20%, Outdoor entries were up 25% and... catching the expectant eyes of those of us on the radio jury...er...(struggling to find the right words)... Radio was up by...3. Hang on Terry is that a percentage or an absolute number?

Others I meet at the dinner shake their heads in sympathy when they hear what jury I'm on. Dave Droga (see gratuitous picture above) simply changes the subject altogether preferring to recall the last Australia game - which was celebrated by an entire subcontinent and half of Liverpool - old boss, Dave Alberts, old jury colleague Carlos Perez and several others (not old) look suitably bereaved. I'm thinking hey 1,000 entries - can't be that bad, can it?

Fortunately Guillaume Van der Stighelen our radio jury chairman is a big fan. He talks enthusiastically about using radio to win pitches (we're doing one right NOW and I briefly consider dictating a couple of new scripts over the phone) and he says how it gets people to use their imaginations and... then we start talking about football.

The other lion.

The Cannes Lion is perhaps the most widely sought-after Lion-like thing in the world. The Lion known as Goleo, the World Cup Mascot Lion, apparently isn’t. According to The Guardian: The company that has the rights to produce them has already gone bust after ‘less than enthusiastic take-up.’ What’s more “German mothers groups have reportedly branded his lack of shorts indecent and boycotted the mini mascots on sale…. the mascots contain a deadly hormone… and to top it all… the lion has endured a barrage of innuendo over his relationship with his sidekick Pille, a talking football.” He’s shown here languishing on the shelves in a Frankfurt airport souvenir shop. I see what they mean about the football. Apparently in an attempt to stem the bad publicity FIFA arranged for an interview with ‘the piece of felt’ and Goleo himself had this to say: "When I consider our relationship, I think, like Woody Allen said about married couples: 'They try to solve problems together that they would never have had apart.'" You could not make this up.

Pre-match build up

Some more facts and figures on the country’s entries to Cannes: Our biggest entry is in Outdoor – with 57 followed by Press with 47. Film and Radio are equal on 24. Then there’s 9 in Media, 4 in Cyber, 3 in Direct and one each in Titanium and Promo.

So we have a chance to win in every category! Our total of 170 is more than say, Turkey. Slightly less than the oil rich UAE – which won a gold last year for that ad with a “NEW” label attached with a paper clip to a flat TV. On the other hand Brazil has 2,537 entries and the USA leads everyone with 3,384.

Meet Linda Locke, Asia Regional Creative Director of Leo Burnett, in the airport, and one of this year's Outdoor judges. She lends me a Euro for the luggage cart. Having weighed up the ethical implications of this I reckon we're both in the clear. Better pay it back later though. Maybe at the Welcome Dinner for Radio, Press and Outdoor juries at 8pm. (Mental note: England v Trinidad and Tobago starts at 9pm - let's hope there's no long after-dinner speeches.)

Nice airport

Only in France
Met at Nice Airport by the official festival car. Note the ‘french-ness’ of the airport sign. Unthinkable that you would drop someone off at the airport and not kiss them. Have to keep an eye on that driver.

The competition

The Philippines has more entries as a percentage of the total in radio than any other category. 24 out of 1018. And this is the only category where we have a judge - me. So it's fair to say I'm feeling the weight of expectation of an entire nation that I can vouch for the virtues of one or more of these entries and push them to 'radio glory.' As the title of the blog has it, there is an option if any of these don't win - enter the new KBP radio awards (www.kbpradioawards.com) but hey, as of now we're all in there with a chance.

One thing that happens as a judge is that you suddenly start getting emails from people you met 10 years ago attaching their entries 'just so you know.' To prevent any accusations of bias (and because I never got round to opening the attachments) I can safely say I haven't heard any of these. At the same time I have to say I haven't received many of the entries from other local agencies. Maybe they think I already know them. Or maybe they think if I know them I won't vote for them. Oh well. The only way to judge ads is on your immediate response to them. As soon as you start analyzing it too much you allow for the possibility of other factors to affect your judgement.

As Matthew Bull of Lowe Worldwide put it recently 'An ad done by your friend seems slightly better than one done by someone you don't know. An ad done for your client's largest competitor is always seems slightly worse than it is.' Uh oh. If he's worried about bias I guess we all should be. Which is why there are 16 of us. And why the lowest and highest votes are ignored. And if you vote for your own country too much you'll be kicked out. Or shamed in front of the 10,000 strong palais crowd. It was HIM! He voted all the Filipino stuff 10! And everything else 0! Well perhaps not. But you get the idea.