Matt Gill’s Cannes Diary: Day Four

Matt Gill, group CD, Healthy Thinking Group is Australia’s representative on the Health & Wellness Lions jury. Gill, along with most of the Australian and NZ jurors, is reporting exclusively for CB.

We are now at the half way point of the judging and the town is getting busier and busier. Other juries are turning up as the festival is staggered over two weeks and It’s going to hit fever pitch. There will be celebrities doing talks and pop stars arriving. I noticed Gwyneth Paltrow is here and someone said Coldplay arrive soon (awkward). I’ve been told there have been near to 45,00 entries across all categories, I haven’t been asked here because I’m good at maths but at an average of 500 Euro a pop that’s quite a bit of cash. No wonder Lions is such a well oiled machine and the biggest event of the year.

Today we have been working out the shortlist and I believe there will be a press conference to announce it in the morning. Today was the longest so far spending a total of 14 hours giving the work the attention it deserves before we make our final calls.

Over the last few days I have seen some inspirational and clever work. Some of my personal favorites included a bike that has been altered to ‘give’ it multiple sclerosis, highlighting what it’s like to live with that condition.

A bunch of people who have breathing difficulties and are helped to improve their breathing through Nebulizers and singing. They became a choir and performed at the Apollo theatre in New York. Another idea I really liked was a simulation of migraines through augmented reality so non sufferers can experience what it’s like to live with that condition. There was also some great work to help stop bullying in Australian schools, certainly a problem that is worldwide as well.

I’ve also laughed a lot with talking testicles telling us how they had lost an old friend ‘Lefty’ to testicular cancer. Even in the breast cancer category where it’s hard to show women how best to examine their-selves for lumps, because of censorship of boobs in certain media – how do you get around that? Man boobs.

There’s been emotional campaigns as well with a couple of really nice entries, one for Autism where a young girl tells as how she sees herself vs how people perceive her. Also tackling the problem in some cultures of unborn girls being aborted. There was an exhibition in Hong Kong displaying the first pictures of the girl which was also their last. Another case study that stood out was for organ donation, in this case someone getting the eyes of a father who’s wish was to see his new born grandchild and the recipient made that come true.

Off to bed now and looking forward to the last day in the judging room before the festival begins and the delegates and clients arrive.

La créativité est le gagnant