Paul Catmur’s Cannes Diary: Day One

Paul Catmur, creative managing partner at Barnes, Catmur & Friends, Auckland is New Zealand’s representative on the Cannes Lions Cyber jury. Catmur, along with most of the Australian and NZ jurors, is of course reporting exclusively for CB.

I think I’m a bit of a disappointment to my fellow Cyber jury members having arrived without any of the dramas many have faced following the French air traffic controllers’ strike.

Not having had to drive from Switzerland, talk my way into the spare seat in the cockpit or charter a private plane, I’m considered a bit of a lightweight despite having come from Auckland.  Maybe I should have swam.

I was also the only jury member in shorts. It may not seem fair to inflict my legs on unsuspecting foreigners but I think we have to respect each other’s cultural differences. I tried explaining that Kiwis wear shorts for all occasions other than funerals of close family members held in the snow, but I’m not sure my message is getting through.

Despite that, the first day has gone surprisingly smoothly. I think the variety of entries helps keeps the interest up for a full day of watching hype tapes. The jury is an interesting mix of digital agency types and full service agency folk, so I’m anticipating some interesting debate at the sharp end of things.

Overall the work is of a pretty high standard, but without many outstanding pieces. There doesn’t appear to be much scam work, though I do wonder how much of the hype claims stand up to closer scrutiny.

I hope I won’t betray any confidences by revealing my top 3 hype-tape lines of the day:

1  ‘The world’s first link between your favourite music and your medical record.’

2  ‘The coolest online city guide in Romania’.

3  ‘…and then we created a Twitter account for Pliny’.