Angela Spain’s Cannes Diary: Day One

Angela Spain, general manager, PR & Activation at FCB NZ is New Zealand’s representative on the Cannes Lions PR jury. Spain, along with most of the Australian and NZ jurors, is reporting exclusively for CB.

Well I finally made it to Cannes after travelling from what felt like the other end of the earth. Oh hang on. It is.

It’s hot. My first impressions of Cannes as we drive in? The number of seriously flash automobiles. You’re not in Auckland now Dr Ropata. Not a Toyota Corolla in sight. Now maybe I’m connecting with my bogan roots by making a mental list, but in the first hour I saw a gold e-type convertible Jag, three Bentleys (one gold), a shiny red convertible Maserati GranTurismo (plus about four navy “standard” ones), a 458 Ferrari,  a MacLaren (I think?) and a few Porsches (interestingly the Porsches were all lady drivers-what does it mean?). Most of these were driving into the front of the hotel.

There is some serious money in this place and if it’s not moored slightly offshore, bobbing gently on the Côte d’Azur then some if it is dangling from the collars of chihuahuas called to heel by ladies with the Fendi handbags trotting down the Rue de Antibes. Nothing like a bit of puppy bling.

Anyhoo we’re here to judge work not opulence (although that’s kind of fun) and we had our jury welcome drinks tonight. To kick things off Terry Savage gave a rousing speech telling us to kiss the sun goodbye as we are about to go deep into the judging abyss and we may not resurface for days. There is a general excitement in the air about the work we are going to see and the festival in general.

And people keep talking about the Gutter Bar. What is this Gutter Bar that they speak of?

More from me soon.