Grant’s Cannes Diary – part one

Grant Rutherford, executive creative director of DDB Melbourne, is representing Australia on the Radio jury. He’s just finished day one of judging and writes exclusively for Campaign Brief, the only Australian trade press in Cannes this year. Other Aussie and Kiwi jurors will be contributing exclusively to the CB Blog over the next 10 days, so make sure you check in daily, hourly, every minute… 

To make this update more interesting dear reader I suggest you cusp a hand to your ear and read aloud in your best Don LaFontaine voice-over, voice. And bear with me.

Day one has been an interesting day to say the least. Our lovely jury chairman Paul Lavoie, founder of Taxi in Toronto (now with offices elsewhere including New York) asked us to find a body of work that celebrates the continued relevance of the medium.  

The medium, after all, has the power to stimulate our imagination, conjure images of other worlds and make those experiences personal.

Unfortunately the entrants weren’t thinking the same thing when entering half this stuff.

Radio’s relative affordability means that entries are up this year to 1,200. One thousand two hundred! Bloody hell. I know other juries have to watch thousands more but when was the last time you heard a truly memorable radio ad that made you jump out of bed, grab your  

laptop and with trembling fingers craft a singular piece of prose worthy of Wordsworth?  

So far I’m less than inspired and I think my ears are starting to bleed. But it is only day one.

Today we spit in to two groups and listened to around 350 spots. We even looked at some. Looked at radio ads? The relatively modern art of the entry hasn’t escaped this mostly audible medium. In some ways it has helped explain ideas but I mostly closed my eyes and imagined what was on the screen. It seemed to help.

But this is where I must end it. I’m off to judge again in about 15 minutes. Hope the booming voice-over thing helped you get through. I know it helped me.

And tomorrow I’ll have something important to say.

You can also follow the latest Kiwi/Aussie Cannes news via Campaign Brief on Twitter as well as via the hash tag:  #ozcannes10

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