Simon Veksner: What happens in Cannes, no longer stays in Cannes
June 23 2014, 10:26 am | | 9 Comments
By Simon Veksner, Creative Director, DDB Sydney
Cannes used to be shrouded in mystique. But today, you can read dozens of blogs every day, about everything that goes on.
It used to be that you could only see all this incredible work from all around the world, if you actually went there. Now, you can see it on the website. READ ON…
9 Comments
Cannes used to be truly exciting, something you really looked forward to, followed every twist and turn and hoovered up every little skerrick of information, particularly who won what.
Now it’s just ‘meh’.
…that most of the CB Cannes coverage has barely any comments?
You can’t be that old if you’re using the word ‘meh’. Give yourself a slap in the face. Or change your name to ‘Young Creative Hack masquerading as Old CD Guy’ and then slap yourself in the face for good measure. Because if there’s one person who thinks they’re cooler than an adolescent riding a skateboard with his hat on backwards while wearing baggy jeans it’s a young person pretending to be an old person who uses the word ‘meh’. It’s not even a word. It’s just dumb.
You know it makes sense.
Perhaps fewer blog posts about how drunk the blogger got at a party….. this is something I’ve noticed is exclusively Australian. AdAge talks about the work, some Aussie magazine talks about the parties.
Agree with the above. Cannes is still brilliant. If you’re not a prick pretending to be an old timer and using the word meh, then you can develop your network and get enough inspiration to fuel thinking until later in the year. Meh, go and grow some pubes rookie!
Absolutely brilliant. Really inspiring. Really makes you think a LOT bigger. The trophies and the parties are great, but they’re not entirely what the Festival is all about.
The point about the experience being shared online is right. That is an improvement on the old days (when Val Morgan used to screen the TV reel). If you really want to get the most out of Cannes, nothing beats actually being there.
Sounds like Old CD Guy hasn’t been for a while.
You don’t have to be pre-pubescent to use ‘meh’, you only need to be across what’s in common usage now.
I really am an old CD guy.
I’m old enough to remember when Cannes was film, print and radio. And nothing else.
Cannes was a precious, hard-to-access rarity in a way that seems absurd now.
The trophies were a small winged lion which came in a fold-out box, like jewellery.
The reel was screened with much anticipation in Melbourne at the now long-dead Longford Cinema. The whole creative department would go on an excursion to see it. And then to Pinnochios afterwards for a coffee and a spaghetti and a spirited discussion of what you’d just seen.
And the agency got a pirated copy on U-Matic (rememberU-Matic? No? Look it up.) which looked like it had been filmed bootleg-style from the screening. Which was copied and copied onto VHS until the picture quality was almost unwatchable.
And we showed our flickering copies to our non-advertising friends. And our parents.
Now do you believe me?
Actually I think it was only film, no print no radio.
No Outdoor, No Cyber. No Titanium. No twiddly bits.