So what do postproduction people know about Craft anyway?

Chopper Nobby

That is the saddest list of old people I've seen since last year's jury.

Does anyone know these people? and what gives them the right to judge.??
What is the industry coming to?
J.A.

Nice photo. Very 'I just finished a big surf and now I'm ready for my full-body massage'.

hope they all have the foresight to award proper stuff and not the scammy shit that makes our region look like a bunch of amateurs.

Anonymice!
1 The average age of award judges is 24.7 yrs
2 The average age of consumers is roughly equivalent to those clueless about the real world who are probably digitarian x 3
3 Nobby's look, like his age, is average
3 The average % of stats that are made up on the spot is 82.7

4:06
HERE, HERE.

Five judges from DDB, five from Saatchi. Mmmmmm....doesn't seem fair. And having Steve Back (former CD of DDB) on same print jury as Matt Eastwood could be cause for concern. Also why no one from The Glue Society?

Oh dear!
You're dead right 4:36.
An extreme bias.
Hopefully the judges are mature enough to look at others ideas and not just their own.
S.

Why is the guy who's written the best radio in the country two years in a row not on the jury?

Is it just me, or does Nobby's photo look like something you might see about three seconds before you get glassed in the Cross at four-thirty in the morning?

I'm proud of you all.

Same names, same faces. Surely there must be other people capable of being creative.

Old.

Haha Nobay looking every bit the Gladiator of Australian advertising. Or having a puff.

7.27

You calling Nobby a puff?

Without intending disrespect, why are there creatives on the craft juries? Shouldn't those positions be filled by craft specialists? I would assume there would be outrage if those with craft backgrounds where on the regular juries. Why does it not work in reverse? Is it just a way of cramming a few more creative buddies onto juries? Heaps of rhetorical questions. Someone give me some answers.

Agreed, Reardon should be a judge, he's the sex.

WTF with some of those names?

So Ogilvy NZ's radio gold last year is matched with an Ogilvy presence on the radio panel, but as 4.36 said, no Glue Society?

There's no-one from JWT, and only one rep from Leos and Colenso?

And with the Host excepted, all the interactive judges are complete duds. None of them won anything at AWARD last year!

5 from Saatchi, 5 from DDB and 0 from JWT after the year they had is joke. You even have 2 from CRC on there. Sure Bec and Dejan are great but how many times have they been on the jury. I seriously don't understand how the committee can look at the jury they put together and not see how glaringly ridiculous it is. This is why AWARD will continue to be joke until an outside body comes in and takes it over. I'm honestly not even sure why we all enter.

Yeah, good point 9:17. I think most of the people on the jury deserve to be selected based on their talents but there is a misrepresentation of agencies. Could be easily corrected with a couple of changes.

And where is Glue?!!!

A democratically elected jury inside Australasia's advertising autocracy. It didn't seem possible and the results prove it wasn't.

A bunch of tossers!

11:36 having a puff. Come on, you're in advertising, use your brain for a change there's no suits here to make your mind up for you.

Once again the Australian ad industry and AWARD for that matter shows why it is not a major player on the world awards stage.

As others have mentioned here, 5 from DDB and 5 from Saatchi is a joke. Jobs for the boys (and some girls). Will be interesting to see how many pencils are awarded to DDB and Saatchi.

When will AWARD get serious judging panels? How about some international judges. No, not just some regional "mates" and "girlfriends" of mates. I am talking some people that will have an unbiased approach to judging work. People from the UK, Europe, Brazil, US, even bloody Botswana, just from somewhere that are prejudiced or influenced from being mates, colleagues or pub acquaintances. And you can't use the old argument some have used that "international judges won't understand Aussie humour/thinking/ideas", bullshit, a great idea is simply a great idea. Aussie work has won at Cannes and that work get judges by a global group of people.

So what about it AWARD, will you ever get serious and stop this award show being nothing more than a chook raffle at the local RSL where one of the old drunk regulars calls out the winning ticket and it is won by Davo the regular who sits at the corner of the bar?

Any judges from Singo's or Banjo's.

Go Davo!

This is hilarious. It's like the Catholics moaning that Benedict isn't holy enough to be the Pope. 9:17 is the best.
"AWARD will continue to be joke until an outside body comes in and takes it over."
So, you want an outside body to come in and take over what is already an outside body? Doesn't the AWARD committee get voted in by its members? I can only assume that then this duly elected committee selects the judging panel.
Is that not fair?
And since everyone seems to love taking potshots at AWARD about how much they charge for everything, how on Earth is flying judges from Brazil and Botswana going to make it any more cost effective?
Derrrr...

And no judges from Tassie. Not one.

Some of these people have been on the jury twice if not three times in the last 4 years.
Why should i renew my Award membership again? Is it so these people have a nice annual to display all their work?

What a political joke.

1:33 unfortunately Australia doesn't hang on to good people very long so we're stuck with a smaller pool.

And if you think for one second Cannes / D&aD is a level playing field and judges don't at least try and rig stuff you're sorely mistaken. Just ask any of the 'Aussie' (sorry post colonialist English) judges that have been there. If we're truly going to level the playing field for AWARD, there should be more judges from Asia. They win more at the international shows than us, so why put people on there that have only come close to winning an award as a peasly little typographer?

Something that does really piss me off about AWARD is the whole scam argument. Change your fucking rules for christs sake – rules state 'Has to have run at least once'. If it runs once, there should be no problem. I'm sick of seeing shit work in my annual, award more scam. Everyone else does it. And if the gold standard of work coming through asia doesn't pick up more i'll be canceling my membership.

Nothing very 'fresh' , 'groundbreaking' or 'International' with this choice of judges. Same faces different gig!

Does AWARD really need to exist?

It would seem that for the individuals who pay for their memberships, they are not being fairly represented on the AWARD judging panels, nor would it appear that they receive any great value for the $285 they are asked to pay for being an AWARD member.

It would also appear that agencies are spending alot of money on AWARD entry fees for a show that is not (in any great way) internationally represented, respected or known. Asia have only recently entered AWARD due to their agencies being included in the Campaign Brief tally, without this inclusion I doubt you would see much partcipation from the Asian agencies at all.

The result of a poorly selected and poorly judged award show only results in a poorly regarded Annual - not much of a guard book for any creative department.

So where is the value for both agencies and individuals?

Granted, we might need an regional award show, maybe just not AWARD.

1:33, I prefer the chook raffle at the local RSL, to tell you the truth. I reckon that AWARD has become gradually worse scamwise the more 'global' it becomes. There are enough 'global' shows as it is: D&AD, One Show, Cannes, LIIA, NYF, Mobius, Andys, etc. AWARD should've remain forever an Australian Show. But hey, why to miss on all those entry and school fees, hey? When AWARD was an OZ/NZ only show, at least we had something to look forward to. Now we're open to all the Asian scam republics: Singapore, Thailand, India etc, it's ridiculous. Incidentally, I spent a research month in South East Asia during Cannes, went through as many newspapers, posters, outdoor, TVC's etc as i could possibly gone through, and, SURPRISE! didn't see one, not even one example of outstanding Asian creativity. The same mobile phones, bland car ads and retail shit we have here in Oz. Everyone praising how well Asia did at Cannes this year specially in print and NOT A SINGLE ONE. NOT ONE. Where are all those good ads then? Please tell me, i want to know. Really. I guess you catch my drift.

A few things that could improve standards, none of them were my idea:

Ron Kambourian, rest his soul, a founding member of AWARD suggested that the jury be elected by all members to stop mates / favours happening, and that anyone with a few years experience in the industry could become a member of the jury, not just those who had won at AWARD. He was voted out of the committee by a bunch of people protecting their own and every year people have whinged since.

Campaign brief could include asian shows in their rankings, such as spikes. It's a pretty well recognised show, and pretty tough competition.

Bestads could start their own award show or combine forces with AWARD to give it a more international flavour.

AWARD could become more like Cannes, D&aD and the NY ADC by not limiting entries to the region. More money for AWARD and more prestige for the show.

We could stop whinging about $285 if we scaled membership according to salary / position – as a means to increase junior membership. $285 to a junior is steep. $285 to a senior is lunch on a friday.

AWARD could also combine its resources with AFA, ADMA, AGDA, AXIS and Billy Blue to create a more comprehensive training program / membership program.

Instead of getting all the judges to fly to one place to judge stuff they could do it online in their own time to minimise the pressures other people in the room may put on them. That way we could have the elected jury presiding over it and also the opportunity for a 'members choice' award as well.

AWARD juries could start awarding the better work and the true representative of regional creativity to showcase our best work to the world, scam or not, rather than the middle ground.

As an industry, we could stop trying to tear our local counterparts down and instead build up the reputation of australasian creativity on a global scale.

AWARD exhibitions could tour (like the NY ADC) around the globe to showcase our best stuff.

We could get the general public more involved with the selection / judging process to make it even tougher to win.
AWARD could also combine effectiveness / creativity results.

there are 50 people on the jury. that's about half the people who work in australian advertising. so you are obviously going to get some repeats and slightly weirder choices.

Australia doesn't have the depth to put up 50 really good people to judge.

As an Aussie overseas I would say you need to protect or enhance the integrity of AWARD by keeping it a local show. Otherwise it just becomes another Adfest. Same scams, different party location. I would like to see the show maintain an Australia/NZ flair. So I guess what I'm saying is, don't let Asia enter.

As far as judging is concerned, always good to have some more outside opinions and for it to not be so imbalanced. As pointed out by many before me, 5 from DDB and 5 from Saatchi just isn't right when some of the other big networks are barely even represented, if at all. That's the trick with a local show. Make the work local but leave local politics out of it.

Still could be a great show and from what I can tell there are some great people judging. Just balance it out.

The irony of this whole scam debate is that Australia's biggest advertising names overseas (that we habitually fawn over) all got there by doing scam after scam after scam. You'd have to be a fool not to see that and go "Hey, that's the way to further my career!"

It's not like there are five people from DDB on the print jury, or 5 people from Saatchis on the TV jury. What's wrong with that? If the individuals themselves don't deserve to be there then fine. But I would assume they do.

Are m&C Saatchi Sydney gonna try and get the 'woof woof bark bark' hoax radio spot past the judges????

Moan, moan, moan. Jesus, living with you lot must be utter hell, your poor mothers. Seriously, read back the dribble you post here and then harden the fuck up Australia.

Go Nobby!

Great to see someone on these blogs who hasn't got a polished head.

10.15 You're that really bitter guy who won't let it go. Shut up. Silent bark is great, will get a gong and will be cheered wildly when the M&C team march onto stage to collect.

4.18, I wish you had the stats on the number of shoots Nobby has had done in the 12 months.

Attention

Scott Collins, Charlie Cook, Ralph Van Dijk, Brendon Guthrie, Laurie Ingram,
James Rickard, Dav Tabeshfar and Tom Paine

Based on the post at 1:52pm, it appears M&C Saatchi are entering their spot for Sydney Dogs and Cats home. If you want to give it an award then by all means do.

Just one thing though, as the press release states

"The writers....claim the ad contains an ultrasonic frequency (at 20,000Hz) mixed under the voiceover, which is a sound that humans can’t hear but dogs can. They claim that when dogs hear the ad, they react by barking or whining."

Like I said, if you wish to award it go ahead. The reason I'm posting this is because I think it will be a not uninteresting litmus test of our industry.

No offence Nobby and co, but do you and your colleagues ever get sick of judging fuckin ad shows?

Would you rather have a BBQ and chill at home? Jump on a boat and go for cruise?

Must be boring after a while.

Gingerballs....

7.09. Grow some balls and prove the ad is a hoax. I'd love to see the substantiation in your ads. 'Why do you need this product? Because! That's why.'

You've been bleating on about this since it was produced yet you haven't once shown why it isn't true. All you're proving at the moment is that you are a tad on the stupid side.

Not wanting to weigh into someone else's argument 6:39, but surely the burden of proof should be on the people claiming to be able to perform the impossible.

But since you're obviously in love with the people who wrote the ad, or highly gullible, stay tuned for my new ad for re-heatable dinners where I'll be asking viewers to put the product in front of their tvs while the ad is running as it'll be emitting secret super powered micro-waves as it runs.

No really, it'll work.

I'm finding the cretinous bile aimed at the M&C radio spot quite amusing.

It comes from a country that's now lumped alongside Mumbai as one of the leading scammers in the World.

We've had work for chewing gum, charity, superglue and fucking Tonka toys pick up gongs around the World and a well written radio ad (that, by the way got into D&AD as a great IDEA) takes the full force of the blog's anger.

Fucking hell guys.

None of you are doing good work.

If you are, you either work in Patts Melbourne, under James McGrath or within an agency that scams.

So fuck off. Seriously. Fuck off.

D&AD is the annual we'd all love to get into, especially if you want to work overseas.

So, before you start attacking a D&AD radio spot - start belting into campaigns we all laud that ran as four executions in the Manly Daily - amusingly blown up to A3 size when I saw them at Adfest.

And no. I don't work at M&C. Oddly enough they had more work in D&AD this year than practically anyone else. More than us for a start - and we scammed our little hearts out.

Hey, that's almost as good as my scratch 'n sniff idea for TV commercials.

Here's how it works. Let's say it's a food ad - KFC, for example. When a scrumptious shot of the food is on the screen, you invite viewers to come up to their TV, rub the screen and they'll be able to smell the delicious fragrance of the food.

Brilliant or what?

And think of the potential for on-line advertising, where you scratch 'n sniff your computer screen!

Is that Gold or what!

10:00am, I find your inability to differentiate between a scam ad and a hoax amusing.

10:00am you need to chill out my friend.

DDB Sydney make money from clients like DELL where it's tough to win awards and win awards from clients like Hasbro whom perhaps it's tough to make money from. Sounds like a healthy balance to me; who doesn't want to work for an agency that has financial stability and a healthy creative reputation?

So worry about something important, like the plight of Aboriginal kids or the disturbing number of homeless teens, not the fucking media spend of a Tonka Truck ad campaign.

Look, knowingly or unknowingly, we've all exaggerated; how much you can bench press, how old you are/are not, how much French you can speak........ but you know what, somewhere you have to draw the line. Show some class, a little integrity.

Saying that your radio ad makes animals act in a certain way on the back of what frequency it's broadcast at crosses the line.

So what if D&AD awarded it. Judge an idea on its merits, not what someone else thinks. Cannes gave a titanium to a bloody bar code a year back - does that mean it's a worthy idea? No.

A lame hoax should get what it deserves - nothing.

10:00 Sorry, but did you just accuse the entire industry of not doing good work, and then tell them all to fuck off, because they are doing scams? Did you then go on to admit that you are scamming too? You seem like a mixed up but totally awesome guy!!

Put a dog on the judging panel. You can blame your farts on him too.

scam, agency initiative, pro bono - they all amount to the same thing. no one really can judge an agency off an ad for a dog home!

But at the end of the day, network agencies the world over do them to try and improve ailing creative departments and bolster the other shit they do.

As for AWARD, if they had balls, they would cut all the charity stuff. And if agencies had balls they would do charity stuff for the good karma and not to try and win awards.

Agencies should have a rule - we do pro bono but we don't enter it. that would make more of a statement than any award you can win for a charity ad.

How can an agency make a statement about doing pro-bono work if they don't tell anyone about it?
You idiot.

Wonder if M&C Saatchi will pitch for any dog food accounts after all this.

At the risk of starting a tangential siht fight, why is it that al of these highly opinionated people won't put their names to their comments????
Would it be that they are worried about taking a stand?.... and risk personal consequence. The same self interest that they claim those involved in judging are accused of? Is this not completely hypocritical? Could it be that they are concerned that they don't have a solution to offer and hence make evident their laziness?

Lets face it, chairing, managing, and judging takes time and effort....no? And it takes committment. The agencies not represented may not give a fcuk. The clients may not give a carp. And whilst the results may include an element of self interest it jsut doesn't matter. Even so, by the weight of numbers, no individual is going to be able to ensure crap gets up? As far as I can tell, its as independent as it could possibly get, without getting the clients, or the suits or the fraeking media sales people to decide. It is what it is. And unless you have a better solution? Are willing to contribute your own time effort and hence money?... then c'mon australia....harden the fcuk up. Do great work and make sure your clients are happy. Stop worrying about awards, most clients don't give a siht. And if you win one good luck to you. I know Nobby - he works damn hard and sticks himself out there and I respect this. I know the boys from three drunk monkeys (love ya work), and met some of the Glue Crew (great work too). I know Smart Creative - (real talent), I know creatives at clemenger BBDO and I know creatives from plenty of other small-mid shops and larger groups. I have been a media sales person with major media, I have worked in agencies in Account Service and in management, and have for many years worked in large clients organisations. And if there is one thing for sure, its not awards that clients remember, its great work. great ads and great ideas. No amount of industry self congratulation, contrived or otherwise is going to change that. Be proud of your work, stop worrying about bullsiht. Or stand up, name yourself and make a difference.

Note: Self preservation has prevented me from sharing my name

Mr stating the very obvious said...

Dude, if you're going to rant about anonymous bloggers and slag off a top CD, try putting your name then your message will look like less of a joke.

Without scam, Australian advertising, as well as NZ and Asian ads just don't stack up. Don't hate the players, hate the game.

And to those in a position of power reading this, use your force for good instead of slagging people off. You know, grow some balls, push shit through, usual shit you're supposed to do instead of blaming juniors if they don't scream at the suits.

And to the fuckwit making calls about aboriginals and juniors in advertising – sometimes it pays to get out of the office, the suburb you live in or even the city and go and talk to a few 'kooris' (aboriginal name meaning 'people'). You might learn something.

Oh, look at you 2:54am, really down with the indigeneous people, aren't you?

Don't recall making calls about Aboriginals and juniors in advertising. What I said was if people want to get angry about something they should get angry about something important i.e the plight of Aboriginal kids as opposed to screaming like a petulant child about the DDB Sydney and their media spend for Hasbro.

Common sense, init.

Good luck trying to find a 'Koori' who wants to work with you. Dork.

That picture is hilarious. Is that Russ Crowe's gladiator, just finished the Ironman, about to down a solo? Or is it...

8:09 I grew up with them. Although it was 'Ezekial' or 'Billy' instead of a 'us' and 'them', country NSW is a lot more integrated than the lower north shore.

And I was refering to another post. Not everything, is about you.

By the way, which preppy GPS school did you go to?

8:09 How about we get angry with the xenophobic and patronising way people put all Aboriginal kids into one basket, that they're clearly incapable of living without our help?

How about we get angry at racial stereotypes and relations to indigenous employment? Dork.

Now now children, play nicely.

Tommy! Stop pulling Tristan's hair.

1:23pm howabout you ask an Aboriginal tracker to locate your head then pull it out of your arse?

My comment was saying we should care about important things - like Aboriginal kids and their futures - ahead of your number 1 gripe in life: the media spend for DDBs Hasbro campaign not being six-figures. Boy! If Ghandi were alive, I reckon he be furious about this too!

If you think my comment makes me a wanker then maybe you should go 'Walkabout' and give yourself the time and space to figure out shit from clay.

3:20pm, So just leave 'em to it eh? Interesting theory. You obviously think the Northern Territory is like Club Med Tahiti for Aboriginal kids. Even John Howard disagrees with you on that - ouch.

Has anyone ever looked at the NZ blog? 90% of the posts on it are constructively positive. Not necessarily nice, but if they bag it, they bag it for a reason or to make a valid point.
Unlike you fuck-wits.
You fuck-wits.

7:05, just step away from the keyboard and concede you have no fucking idea outside the media about Aboriginal issues. It's ok, I expect that from people. But don't believe all you read my white brother, as you may come to realise, even journalists are jumping on a bandwagon in this area.

Now stop taking everything so personally and go and meet a Koori, you'd be surprised – they probably don't need or want your pity.

11.42AM, CREATIVES ARE ON CRAFT BECAUSE THEY LOOK AT HOW THE CRAFT BRINGS THE IDEA TO LIFE. TRAINED AS ART DIRECTORS OR CREATIVE DIRECTORS THEY KNOW BETTER THAN MOST THE GOOD FROM THE BAD, AFTER ALL THEY HIRE THE CRAFTSPEOPLE AND APPROVE THEIR WORK.

Jeez, 10:32, what the hell are you up to, dragging the discussion back onto topic!

Why dont we just get the Gruen Transfer panel to judge everything and be done with it.

9.21pm Aug 6. I assume you are referring to me 8.59pm - Aug 6? If so, a quick clarifier....

I already admitted to my own hypocracy - something your stupidity has failed to remind you of as you restated the bleeding obvious and neglected to leave your name. Worse though you went on to validate / prove my point about not being hard enough. In true form, you took my comment personally (on behalf of someone else?) - rather than as it was directed.
... I said I didn't much like him. I made no comment about his creative work, and in fact, recognised his leadership qualities and my respect for that. I then went on to speak of the talent across the industry identifying a few among many.

But your constructive contribution was what .....Oh yeah thats right.... To restate my point and. So to you I say this...get out of the industry, your emotions are in th eway of your talent.

Aint it funny, we got so hilariously caught up in random potshots made by snononymous people and gramaratical spelling mistakes that we completely forget about the big massive turds we're about to infect everyone's television sets with.

And ho hum we don't get a shiny little fucking trophy for it.

My pappa said to me once, better to be poor and happy than rich and boring. I think some people may need a short break from work for a while, just to get things into perspective.

8:35, congratulations on inventing a new word for the self-appointed ruling class of hype merchants otherwise known as the ad industry - the Hypocracy. Brilliant.

Hypocrisy, on the other hand is something altogether different.

If you don't have work worthy of entering AWARD, bleat in this blog.
Is that the bottom line?
Break out, lighten up, have fun, do better work. It's fun winning awards.
Seriously. No, really. You can do it.

Aug 11 - 3.48pm - If only you had read my previous comments. YOU will have no doubt noted all of the intentional spelling errors. So maybe you picked up on the irony of my creative genious.

Note, you will have also discovered... i am not in the advertising industry.

So thanx, but no thnx .