Ben Welsh’s Cannes Diary: Day Four

Ben Welsh, ECD at M&C Saatchi, Sydney is Australia’s representative on the Cannes Lions Outdoor jury. Welsh, along with most of the Australian and NZ jurors, is of course reporting exclusively for CB.

Day four. It’s metal time. No more scans, no more beeps, now it’s down to a show of hands after some healthy discussion. In fact, it’s a really healthy, collaborative jury. Mr Granger is keeping it fun but flowing. There are disagreements, but so there should be. Gold is suitably rare and pretty much unanimous. The only drama of the day happens shortly after lunch when the coffee machine breaksdown.

There’s loads of work from Latin America and Asia, very little from the US and UK. I know this because the case studies always begin: “In Mexico/Brazil…..” also, because the shortlist has the country of origin printed on it, until Tony quite sensibly asks for another list to be printed without it.

We stop at seven, 17 categories down, 28 to go. I hear from one of the jurors that psychologists have shown that having to make multiple decisions is bad for the ego, which is why, after a long day’s judging we need a drink.