The Campaign big awards: celebrating the best of…um…dutch advertising.
Apparently, tonight’s Campaign Big Awards are going to give TV Ad Of The Year to this*:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idLG6jh23yE
Now, leaving aside the question of financial doping (I think if you gave quite a few creatives £27m – the rumoured final budget, including £3m on post – they could probably create something pretty good for Nike), I have a slight problem with this.
The ad is from W&K Amsterdam (although I believe the creative team were from W&K London), so what is it doing winning the TV section of the Campaign Big Awards, an award scheme that must surely be UK-based?
Well, a quick check on the CBA website explains that ‘The Campaign Big Awards celebrate the best creative advertising that has appeared in the UK. Yes, many of the entries will be from UK agencies, but agencies from around the world can enter work that has been published, displayed, or transmitted in the UK.’
Why on earth would you create an award scheme to celebrate the best creative advertising that has appeared in the UK?
The BTAAs has overseas category for work from UK production companies that appeared abroad (helping Trakto/Partizan to some good wins), but that was just one award out of the others that were there to celebrate the excellence British advertising.
Campaign, the UK’s only significant ad mag, is about to celebrate the advertising of Holland.
Why?
Fuck knows, but for me it’s just going to emphasise the paucity of the UK’s creative output in the last year.
Rather a strange thing for Campaign’s award scheme to do.
*My information about this result could be wrong. If so, apologies. My point about the awards still stands.
And post production was done by the mill in New York
the answer couldn’t be simpler: it the money, stupid.
That can’t be the reason behind this. If that were the case they’d also have an overseas category for UK-produced work that runs abroad. In fact, they’d probably trump up another dozen spurious loopholes.
Also, I imagine the number of overseas-produced entries that run in the Uk is pretty small.
It ran it the UK. Everyone in the UK loved said. ‘Best advert ever’ was the consensus.
Advert. UK. UK Advertising awards. No brainer that it can be entered. Regardless of where it was made, it ran in the UK.
It ran in the UK Ben. Old Spice didn’t, so it can’t be entered. UK. Advert. Ben.
If the concept was done by a UK team working at a UK agency, then fair play, surely? The rest are just production monkeys. It’s all about the ideas no? (I think it was a cracking idea btw.)
old spice ad ran in the UK with a slight tweak over the last few months.
Well it ran digitally. I guess the people involved didn’t enter it (why bother?), but it would surely have won its category, and perhaps overall digital, giving us another non-UK winner. Hooray!
dont give a fuck who wins as long as it aint bring on the fucking trumpets
Bring on the Trumpets as MUCH better ad than that Nike spot. BORING.
I never thought I’d say this, but I’m with Cock Knocker.
i think if the rule is that it has to run in the uk? then fair enough.
that part of the awards has nothing to do with creatives. it’s about who paid for the media and where did it run?
which is common amongst shows and always has been.
this ad is fantastic.
just in terms of craft skills.
look at each and every shot.
there are about 100 ads in there chopped together to create an epic.
it’s a big ad, in a time when big ads shouldn’t exist.
why shit on its parade?
I thought it was shite.
Why shit on its parade?
Bored on Wednesday.
Thought it might provoke an interesting reaction or two.
And it’s only a little shit on the ad’s parade.
The main shit is on the CBA.
I like the fact that no one seems to care that the best ad in the UK in the last year was Dutch.
Says a lot.
I’m really happy this ad is winning awards.
It’s by far the most ambitious piece of work this year. And credit is due. to the creatives (there was a lot), the clients (there was a lot, and the account handlers (there was a lot).
This work should be applauded. Not moaned about. Even on a Wednesday.
It could be a lot worse. You could be in hell like me.
I wish it had my boy Frank was in it.
As much as I love W+k the way they share interests amongst the network is almost communist. If Iain Tate farted in Portland, London would’ve re-tweeted half a million positive descriptions of its fragrance and had a PR out to Campaign before tea time.
Maybe the Mill NY worked on this too, but basically the entire staff of the Mill London was dedicated to getting the post done on this for about 2 weeks.
In Amsterdam they definitely think of it as a W&K Amsterdam ad,and so does I’m sure the rest of the world,however much London would like to take credit for it..
I prefered that Parklife ad that ran yesterday or the day before.
Check out Pat Lampard’s profile.
@PatLampard – genius profile.
15 spins before I could stop laughing long enough to escape from Pat’s demented clutches.
Did the Mill do the post on that too do you think?
Honestly, we work in an industry that revolves around our strength of communication and half the people who work in it (and comment on this blog) can’t even fucking get basic grammar right.
@#1 Anon.: names begin with capital letters, therefore “the mill” should be written/typed out as “The Mill”.
@Cock Knocker: Jesus, I’m not even going to bother with you. You obviously learned everything from the special needs.
@Lorem Ipsum: put a FUCKING SPACE after commas, please (look, see, just like what I do).
Actually, fuck this, I can’t be arsed to correct you all. Ben, it’s your blog, there must be something that can be done, surely?
Thanks.
I’m glad you like my profile. It’s a video of me and Frank’s Dad on valentines day last year. He’s not lost it!
pissed off writer – screw you, i’m not a copywriter, and i’m writing on a blog – i hardly think it matters
@Pat Lampard: your profile: which one are you?
Pissed Off Writer, what didn’t you understand? Where is your confusion, maybe we could help you? Plenty of bad English and grammar caused by slipping standards, but lack of communication, really?
What if it had been made in the UK by Dutch creatives? Would that be any different?
Yep.
For anyone who hasn’t experienced it, I’ve been seconded to network offices in other countries and have never felt remotely like I’m working for my home agency.
I’m sure you’re all aware that a ton of work goes into an ad beyond having the original idea, and this is, apparently, a great success for a Dutch agency.
I have no problem with that, just as I have no problem with Old Spice winning lots of awards for America.
But this is a UK-based, UK-centric award scheme that rewards the work of foreign agencies.
Like I said in the post, that strikes me as somewhat odd.
Creative directors and producer: Wk amsterdam, creative team (stu harkness and freddie powell, Brits) and planner: wk london. It was a joint effort.
Cool.
Why is it not credited to both agencies?
And was the budget really £27m?
(Congrats, by the way.)
£27m? Seriously? No. Nowhere near that number.
Credits – dunno, not my department. It’s a W+K ad, that’s the main thing. And the whole thing couldn’t have been done without Mindshare and AKQA.
Get your facts right about the post.
Audio post was done at Grand Central Studios in London – I know because I worked on it for 2 months.
Video Post was done by The Mill in London !.
And yes the creative team was WK London alongside the Creative Directors from WK Amsterdam
Well, Neil, I think credit where credit’s due.
If it’s a W&K London job then that would allow it entry to the BTAAs, where it would deservedly win ad of the year. Without clarifying that we’re going to have to settle for some other also-ran and get all depressed about what a shit year it was.
I’m not saying you should be boastful (that would be very unlike W&K London), but if you did something good, there’s no reason not to put ‘Wieden and Kennedy’ as the credit, or, if you like, ‘Wieden and Kennedy, Mindshare and AKQA’.
And was it ¬£10m? 15? 20? It’s fairly common knowledge that it’s in double figures. Surely no one’s embarrassed about the amount…?
An awards ceremony isn’t an awards ceremony without some controversy…
Here’s my thoughts on the night if you’re interested.
CampaignBigAwards