D&AD
D&AD has puzzled me again this year:
1. What’s with the half-ceremony with no Black Pencils thing? Many of you might not even be aware that the Silvers were handed out on Thursday evening to an audience of… no idea. Way to make what is already a damp, damp, damp, damp, damp, squib of an award scheme just a little bit damper.
2. Some rather odd awards/non-awards. I’ll just concentrate on two because they’ll help me make further points: in TV, John Lewis, winner of all best ad at the BTAAs and Creative Circle ends up merely ‘In-Book’. Look, I understand that different people have different opinions, but come the fuck on. Surely even a foreign person can tell how good that ad is (for the avoidance of doubt, that sentence is supposed to be tongue in cheek). What really happened on that jury? What bets were called in? Who did the people of Adam and Eve unwittingly piss off? Who has pictures of who with a donkey and a tub of Swarfega? I think it’s clear that a jury who awards that essentially a Bronze is wrongheaded in some way. And I guess the composition of that Jury might go some way to explaining what has happened here: Nick Bell is a legend, Paul Shearer has produced some UK classics, Lizie Gower’s production company has churned out many of this country’s recent greats, Mark Tutssell might be away with the fairies, but he used to have form… But the others? I think each of them falls down on the criteria of either quality or UK-ness or both.
The second is Walls. I know five Golds at BTAA doesn’t mean as much as it used to, but it’s usually a 100% indicator of inclusion in the D&AD annual. This year, zilch. Again, I have no fucking idea how that happened. It’s funny, different, original work for a big brand that stands out like the testicles of the dog in the ring case. Please can someone on the jury stop by here and explain that decision?
3. I hear D&AD is trying to be even more international. Oh shit. It really is fucked now. Cannes owns that scene and here’s why: good speakers, good weather, more prestige and more publicity. If D&AD wants to compete on that territory it will fail miserably. In ten years it’s gone from seeming superior to Cannes to acting like its desperate kid brother.
Does any of the above matter? Of course not. If they want to collapse and slip away to nothing, that’s their business.
Still rather have a pencil than a lion though.
What about you Ben?
God, that’s like asking if I’d rather have a McDonald’s or a Burger King. Ummm… a Pencil.
There’s no doubt about it D&AD used to be better when it was all about celebrating and showcasing the best of BRITISH design and advertising….then again when I was a season ticket holder at Charlton they used to have the biggest ground in the league, and I used to have a quiff.
D&AD made a big mistake when they threw away their USP, but the deed’s been done and there’s no going back.
The UK desperately needs an organisation that does what D&AD used to do but in reality is there the required number of people that care enough to make it happen?
….I forgot to say – Walls not in the book!!!!!
Just shows what a lottery it’s all become….waffle, drone, bore.
I just had a look at the press ads but even those gave me depressions.
you mentioned 3 dudes that havent done an ad in two million years.
I dunno, i personally respect more what Eric Quennoy from W+K amsterdam has done (tbs is that funny campaign, that was fucking genius, and a pencil as well if i remember) than what mister Bell, Tutsell and Shearer… just because their ads are all on black and white.
No idea what the others have done, but surely they must have at least a pencil to be judges?
What is the best festival in your opinion then, Ben? And dont creative-circle me my friend…
To me d&ad is still the best… call it unfair, lost the plot festival… but still, those yellow little things, so pure, with your name on them, so nice to the touch of your fingertips, aaaah… jizzed in my pants.
The most annoying thing about the night was (a part from the above)…WE HAD TO PAY FOR OUR OWN FUCKING DRINKS!
I’d rather have a burger. Oh and 6 golds at BTA for Wall’s actually
In fairness, the age old criticism of the D&AD evening was that is dragged and dragged through a thousand nominations. The designers couldn’t give a toss about the ad awards and visa versa. By midnight everyone had had enough and just wanted to go home.
This year there’s a big ‘do’ in September – where the Black pencils will be announced. This prelim was to get the nominations out of the way, and the silver / yellows announced. So the event where you pay for a ticket (and where Mr Dickhead may get some free booze) won’t be bogged down with hours of admin.
Just saying.
Creative Circle – now is your chance.
I used to really bothered that I was not good enough to win a pencil. Now, not so much. Has the standard of the competition changed or have I just grown old and sceptical? A bit of both, I expect. As for the Wall’s work… Well, the only reason I can imagine why it’s not even ‘in book’ is that it wasn’t entered?
You know what depresses me even more? When I read the last presentation of the drivel I had to come up with for a major brand. Compared to that, anything on the press section was better. Come on #7, let’s go get wasted, drinks are on me.
But Mr. G, that’s maybe four or five awards that are pretty random (and usually include an Apple product) and spread across the categories. Is that enough to get you to give a shit? I don’t think so. I’ve been there when they’ve announces past Golds and it’s not interesting enough to sustain an entire paid for ceremony all on its own.
I know the ads vs design thing makes the evening a bit dull, but without the Silvers there’s very little to care about.
@Anon: I think the best festival must be Cannes, because it is an actual festival, y’know, with speakers and events and people gathering in one space for a few days etc. I don’t care about awards in that way anymore, so the yellow stubby versus the metal lion is a bit of a non-debate in my mind.
And sure, Quennoy has also done some greatness; I’m just wondering if the UK vibe of Walls passed him by. Or maybe he loved it and had a huge debate with the rest of jury to defend it. No idea. And you don’t need a Pencil to be a judge. I know of judges of who had not yet been In Book when they were asked.
I looked at some of the winners in press and posters and they were shockingly bad. Some of them we couldn’t even work out – and we’re four creatives, how would a punter?
I’ve lost faith in the D&AD – as a young creative what am I supposed to aim/aspire to? I don’t know – the whole thing makes me sad.
??? now that’s interesting. Can you become a jury if you haven’t even been mentioned in past years for doing good work? that just sounds really unfair.
Surely the better the jury the better the work showcased?
Sadly, it has an impact on the way the creative Dept in agencies are treated too.
Try getting a pay rise when you’re not getting awards. It’s very rare today for a UK creative to be in that area.
It’s okay saying it doesn’t matter but agencies don’t really bump up your salary for looking after clients and doing ‘good’ work for them (unlike account handlers and planners). You need the other stuff too.
‘I know of judges of who had not yet been In Book when they were asked.’
Me too. So your work’s being judged as being worthy of a place in D&AD by people who’ve never been in it themselves.
#14 You can come along with me and #7. I already feel like opening a bottle of whiskey and it’s just midday.
What must be even worse is that there are hardly any agencies left which do good work. And even if you find one (e.g. Goodby Silverstein) you won’t have a snowballs chance in hell to get hired as a junior.
By the way Ben, you might want to have a look at this: http://kotaku.com/5903955/read-valves-employee-company-handbook-its-amazing
Very nice.
Bit depressing all this. D&AD was so important not very long ago and now very few people give a shit about it, or the pay-for-your-own-booze Silvers night. I’m assuming there is a lot of pressure to give out a Black Pencil or five this year, as ‘Black Pencil Night’ may fall a little flat otherwise. Personally I’d give it to the John Smith’s Paper Plate press ad for defying all common sense and logic.
Walls is my favourite TV campaign (of 2 ads, I know) by far this year. I guess that makes me a twat as it didn’t even get in the book.
Thomson’s Holidays got in the book. So according to D&AD its as good as John Lewis.
(Both ads have a kid in them. Both emotional. Both have modern music versions of rock/pop classics. So by that criteria, guess they are as good as each other right?)
I would love for the next D&AD presidents to be under 30.
we win 3 pencil this year for scamp ad about dog with beard.
If the Ozzies can retain their ozziness then why the eff can’t we go back to being British. Glocalisation not globalisation.
So Wall’s sausages, directed by Jim Thornton, didn’t get a nomination and Paul Shearer was on the jury. I think a bit of knobbling may have been going on. http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/209890/
Bad Mr. Shearer.
I’m a creative from the ‘international’ community and even I am appalled by some of the jury members. Time was when all the creatives here complained about D&AD being ‘too British’, a comment I swiftly dismissed by saying that all they were doing was making excuses for not producing true quality.
I got into the book last year (or was it the year before last) and the only thing that made me feel happy was Michael C Place was on the jury. Not a lot else really mattered.
Which is a shame, because it was the only book/award I really longed for. (Still do, mind you, a pencil one of these days really would be nice) But once I got in, I was a bit, how shall I put it, indifferent.
P.S: The Walls thing is scandalous.
BTAAs is a fun night out for the ad industry.
D&AD covers loads of interesting industries. There was loads of great stuff that got a pencil.
Stuff that makes a 90 second TV ad for John Lewis look seriously fucking dated.
I reckon I am a pretty good judge of stuff and don’t generally go with the mob. I don’t think those wall’s ads are very good. They’re not that funny and a bit flat at the end with the bit about him being ‘just a bloke’. There’s just nothing very interesting about them.
I sincerely hope nobody is questioning Hernan Ponce’s credibility.
No. Just his UK-ness.
But I have to say the man is a bit of a Ponce.
D&AD has disappeared up its own arse. but then so have all the previous dead tree ad annual aggregators. they have struggled to justify their existence since the internet. cannes works because it’s a good party and it’s glamourous. and that’s attractive to shallow ad folks like me. do i really care what mark tuttsel thinks of my work? frankly, no.
The ponce joke is the very essence of being British. Long may it continue.
@25 – Heard there was a lot of bad blood between the two, and it sounds like the kind of spiteful thing Shearer would do.
Shearer is an odd man so it doesn’t surprise me.
Shearer’s not odd he’s just Caledonian.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w6cQwTQRko
I think Vinny Warren has the right attitude. Who gives a shit what anyone thinks. I don’t.
The only rub being these awards progress our careers. It’s nonsense.
If the work was judged fairly, the awards would carry much more value, but they’re not.
Vinny hits the nail on the head.
Do I care what these people think of my work?
No.
‘I don’t care’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG-qCyYZRms
Fundamentally I don’t give a shit about what’s great in China, Romania or deepest darkest Puru. The markets are far removed from the UK with different parameters.
D&AD is a charity we understand that. But they’ve totally fucked themselves over by being too greedy.
It’s totally irrelevant now to those it was set up to serve. I’m not renewing my membership nor are the other five in book members in my creative department.