Went to see the screening of the 2003 Cannes Lions Festival tonight. And while there were some mediocre ads in the mix, there were also moments of sheer brilliance. Like the McDonald’s “transparent” campaign. Or the condom ad with the kid throwing a temper tantrum in the grocery aisle. Or the Honda ad with the domino-like assembly of car parts that was actually filmed in two long takes.
All in all, more laughs than the average comedy feature film. (I wish I could link to them, but the once-wonderful Adcritic.com has become a subscriber-only service. For those of us advertising buffs, that was a real loss.)
All in all, the festival makes you realize that (a) soccer is really really really important in the rest of the world, especially Great Britain, (b) European ads are so much better than ours and (c) advertising can be fun.
But paying? To see ads?
To people who consider advertising an intrusive or even corrupting influence on our lives, they would probably be aghast at the notion.
But advertising is more than just sales. It’s a real art form. And while creative alone won’t always sell the product, at least seeing ads like these inspires those of us in the business to work harder to create something truly great.
Okay, all of you who think advertising is evil can throw rotten fruit at me now…
Tomato to the left! Egg to the right! Damn I missed! Just kidding Sari. Adverstizing’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it. Seriously, despite my “anti-capitalist” roots, I have nothing against advertising per se. We do it all the time. The problem is the sheer amount of it. The bombardment. And of course, the better you are at tuning most of it out, the more marketers innovate to force you to pay attention.
It’s easy to be against advertising, but the advertising itself is just a medium. Hanthala, your causes, like the pro-Palestinian rallies or the anti-capitalism seminars, advertise very effectively. They hate all ads… except their own. Hell, even Adbusters advertises!
So really, what most people who claim to hate advertising really hate is the corporate structure behind ads for profit-seeking corporations.
In a way. Also volume. Can’t turn around without someone trying to sell you something.
Hey, if even a third of advertising I saw in my wanderings was Golden Lions quality, I wouldn’t mind the quantity.
I look forward to the Golden Lions every year…