The One Show: John Mescall’s judging diary
John Mescall, executive creative director of McCann Australia, was Australia’s representative on the exclusive The One Show jury this year. The winners will be announced in New York on Friday night.
As far as jury duty goes, judging at The One Show is pretty much as good as it gets. And at the risk of causing a huge amount of bile to involuntarily rise in your throat, I’m now going to tell you exactly how awesome it is to have the honour of being asked to judge this one (One?).
For starters, the judging takes place in Santa Barbara, California. At the Four Seasons resort. This is the kind of place where very comfortable, very wealthy LA-types come to relax. So the views are amazing, the air is scented with Jasmine, the temperature is perfect, the lawns are manicured and the cosmetic surgery is so good that it almost looks like the real thing.
The judging itself was utterly brilliant. Unlike other shows, where you get a category and stick to that, there were only three advertising juries: Print, Radio and Advertising (which is basically everything that isn’t print and radio). I was in Advertising, which meant a solid week of flitting between 15 Second TVC’s and Integrated case studies, and everything in between.
So just as you were starting to tire of the format, it changed up. Which kept things fresh, and nothing ever felt like a chore.
The jury itself was incredible. You know how on most juries you always get one or two people who kind of keep to themselves and just stab their tablet when required, and then run off to do conference calls and god knows what, and hardly ever say a word to you the whole time? Well, there was none of that here. A great jury, a fair few US-based but with a good smattering of internationals, all of whom took the time to really get to know each other.
Let’s face it: the people you meet and the discussions you have are the real reason you haul yourself halfway around the world to do these things. Judging remotely may achieve a similar result for the show, but would be far less rewarding.
The resort was the kind of place I’d probably never stay in of my own volition, but was way fun. Every now and again they let us out of the darkened room, and we could do a little celebrity spotting.
One day we saw a really cool vintage Rolls Royce pull up, and we made some lame gag about us being the valet guys, so the driver pretends to toss us the keys and hahaha. After he’s gone, we realise the driver was Ewan McGregor. Seemed like a cool, regular guy. A cool, regular guy with a 1960 Rolls, Luis Vuitton suitcases and a matching girlfriend. Still. For Hollywood, completely normal.
But truthfully, most ‘celebrity’ sightings were in the bar after hours and went a lot like this:
“Hey, is that Justin Bieber?”
“Justin Bieber? Where?”
“Over there, next to the 80 year old man with his 25 year old wife.”
“No, that’s not Bieber. That’s a lesbian.”
“Oh.”
The work, well, it’s One Show so it was the best of the best. A fair amount of it we’d already seen and judged before, but there was also a bunch of new stuff to keep us on our toes. My personal favourite of the week was Climate Name Change. I never tire of watching that one. Epic Split of course.
Other highlights? Meeting Jim Riswold. Lovely guy. Huge talent. Utterly mad. Especially when he’s been drinking. During opening cocktails, he posed for the camera with his finger stuck up my nose. That kind of guy. Heart of gold though.
Morning runs along the coast, sun coming up, aforementioned jasmine in the air.
Being all Australian with Matt Eastwood, talking footy and utes and VB (not really).
Meeting great people I’ve never met before: Geoff and Tracy and Anna and Jesse and Jen and Raj. And catching up with great people once again: Anselmo and Leslie and David.
The breakfasts. God, I still miss the breakfasts. The omelet station, the endless fresh berries, the pancakes. Sorry, I did warn you that I’d be making you jealous.
Most of all, spending a week being exposed to the best work in the world, and discussing it with people I admire, respect and like. Few things better, really.
Finally, I’d like to thank the wonderful Mary and the stoic Kevin (who ruptured his Achilles but soldiered on) for being such gracious and generous hosts, and providing me with one of the best advertising weeks you’re ever likely to have.
(Picture 1: The bar, with Geoff Edwards (DOJO) and Tracy Wong (WONGDOODY); Picture 2: The lawn, almost too nice to walk on; Picture 3: The bus, always a thrill; Picture 4: What we actually did most of the week)