Good lord, there are far too many award schemes out there.

But by that I mean that there are far too many reasons for a bunch of people to charge £250 a time for the honour of being the third best charity press ad in the UK.

Sell! Sell! has just written a trenchant post on the subject, which I agree with in principle, but I’m not sure there’s a system that beats the subjective judgement of a few brilliant practitioners of the craft.

Except…

For this one. Today is the commencementification of the ITIABTWC Creative Director of the Year Award.

It costs nothing to enter and will be decided entirely on your votes. Obviously, this can be subject to abuse, but we’ll assume you’re all going to be super honest, and I can weight the nominations based on the size of the creative department.

If I just place a poll on the blog the winner won’t be a surprise, so if you’d like to vote, just send me an email at bwmkay@googlemail.com

The winner will receive a nice bottle of booze and the most coveted trophy in advertising the Benny.

I don’t know what the deadline’s going to be, so vote early. You can create a fake gmail account if you want to remain anon.

Happy voting!

Sometimes, when you’re wondering if there’s something you can do that doesn’t involve heated debates over the colour of a jumper or the placing of a comma, you might think there’s somewhere you can escape to.

A place where you can just tool along as you like without having to care about the opinions of others that may or may not coincide with your own.

Well you can’t.

There’s always a boss somewhere.

So suck it up.

It’s funny because it’s true:

(Thanks, Anon.)

(Thanks, L & D.)

Oh, and I deleted the Tony Kaye/Paul Arden thing because, on reflection, I don’t think I’d boo someone who sang a song at a funeral. If you want to see it you can check it out here.

Creativity Online has posted some interesting interviews with big chief creatives.

I haven’t read them all, but in the ones I have looked at I noticed a phrase cropping up:

‘I solve clients’ business problems‘, or some variation of that.

Now, I wonder when that became a reasonable thing for ECDs to say?

Some time over the last five years the job of a certain kind of creative director has changed from ‘I make sure the creative output of the agency is top notch’ to something broader and more business focussed. It also encompasses the less conventional side of advertising, where the solution might be product development, movies or different staff uniforms.

I suppose it’s also indicative of a change in the business, either because these guys are now closer to the results end of what happens, or they feel the need to make it clear that that’s the case.

I’d have thought that in some way that’s always been the job of a good CD (and when did everyone start becoming ECD’s? There were none ten years ago; now every old CD is now an ECD and the CDs are what group heads used to be. Why did that happen? Another post, perhaps).

Only now, with the chance that your client may read this interview, it’s good to make it clear.

Is a good blog.

It’s where I found this video.

For what it’s worth, I have a kid about the same age as the one that’s featured, yet I spent much of it laughing my head off.

?

Daryl and I have a code phrase for bullshit ad ideas that have never really seen the light of day. When we come across one, we just show it to the other and say, ‘Throughout the month of June…’

That’s because agency films all have a voiceover that says something along the lines of, ‘Throughout the month of June hundreds of bollards were painted pink…’ or ‘Throughout the month of June we placed sandwiches near all the penguins in London Zoo…’

It’s the description-y bit that seeks to give size and status to ads which have none, and are the explanatory equivalent of the obligatory shot of three people WHO ARE IN NO WAY MATES OF THE AD CREATIVES looking at the brilliant ambient idea with an impressed smile on their faces.

LOOK! PEOPLE SAW WHAT WE DID AND LIKED IT! WHILE WE WERE THERE TO CAPTURE THE MOMENT WITH OUR CAMERAS! THIS IS NOT, I REPEAT NOT, BULLSHIT!

This will be closely followed in the agency video by a V/O that says, ‘Hundreds of websites picked it up’ over a shot of many websites that the agency in-house dept have fabricated to cover up the foetid stench of indifference from a sensible public.

Then there will be a newscaster from a minor TV channel (possibly a TV PA who has been made to look like that in the agency basement) who explains how traffic ground to a standstill while Johnny Cockbreath danced on a motorway to publicise My Little Pony, or how the police were called to a fake horse wanking ring that was set up to publicise Pantene Pro-V.

Then there will be some specious stats that claim enormous success for the camel that was glued to an artichoke in Trafalgar Square in aid of Oxfam, or the helicopter that dropped lamb bhuna all over Buckingham Palace for Marmite.

In short, the whole thing will almost certainly be 94% bullshit.

No exaggeration:

(Thanks, A.)

Just a quick one.

The Fireflies are on their annual ride across the Alps in aid of leukemia charity Leuka.

Why not sponsor them?

It’ll make you (and some leukemia sufferers) feel better.