D&ADon’t give a shit
Last week saw the 2011 D&AD Awards.
I know I’ve written before about this organisation losing its way, but last Wednesday seemed to plumb a new depth.
Amongst the people I know in advertising, I’m aware of only two who attended the ceremony. Many didn’t even know it was happening – in fact a CD of a top ten UK agency was quite surprised when I mentioned the results to him the following day.
On Thursday I tweeted: ‘This just in: last night’s D&AD has just been named the least-given-a-fuck-about awards do of all time.’ It was retweeted by other CDs, including previous winners.
Maybe it’s just an impression I’ve got based only on my circle of friends and acquaintances, but (modesty aside) that is quite a lot of the UK’s creatives. Did you go? Did you care? Was it any good?
I was never interested in attending, but this feeling was compounded by the fact that, as an entrant, D&AD had my phone number and used it to cold call me several times to ask if I was coming, and if not, why not? Funny, in the old days I’d have given my left nut to go, but now I’d rather… What was I doing last Wednesday? Watching TV, maybe?
To me, that seems to confirm that D&AD is now a dim, dribbly irrelevance that went from being an organisation of great power and respect to one that barely registers with the people who used to revere it. And from what I can tell, the next generation of creatives cares even less.
Quite an achievement.
(By the way, to continue my ongoing detachment with the organisation, I’m selling all my old annuals. If you want any or all of the Books from 1982 to (I think) 2008 (missing 1987), send me an email at bwmkay@gmail.com.)
We don’t have it in the North.
They tried it but it never caught on. Like Morecambe.
All my annuals are going on ebay. Fuck ’em.
I was one of those people who, like you Ben, worshipped at its yellow wooden altar. I used to study the juries, work out who might be favourable to our work, and even went to an interview for a job we didn’t want just to secure a vote (got 2 nominations, no sodding pencil). I’ve got 5 pencils now and am as proud as fuck, but must say that since it became another international scam-fest, it just doesn’t interest me so much. The juries are teeming with people you’ve never heard of because ‘A’ list people have started to say no to doing it. In the past no-one said no, it was a badge of honour to be on the jury. I’m working at an agency that won 2 pencils last year. On Friday, I asked a bunch of young, moderately beardy creatives who had won. ‘Won what?’ they said. ‘Yeah, won what?’ said the ECD.
And what are those sliver things all about? If you get nominated and don’t win, tough shit sunshine. That was the point. It was brutal. And don’t get me started on the White Pencil…
I have lost interest but I can’t bring myself to sell my annuals (that’s if anyone wanted to buy them in the first place.)
Last Wednesday? Saw Senna.
But…I’d be quite pleased to get in the book, and I’d be very happy to get a silver or more.
On balance, no award holds the allure that they used to.
That intensely competitive, driven nature of being in a creative department has all but evaporated.
(As I write this I’m starting to wonder what other business rejects 95% of the work that somebody produces and still asks why they aren’t as motivated as they used to be.)
I guess that’s what makes people like you and John Hegarty different.
No comedian. No fun. No smoking outside when we arrived – we were stopped and told we had to go to our seats instead. HAD TO! Dinner was FOLLOWED by the awards. That meant 3 hours of sitting before we could go and chat to our mates. ANd it’s not like we were entertained during those 3 hours. And the work. There was no way of knowing what the idea was on most of the award winning pieces because they showed a still from a website that said NOTHING about the idea. No Black Pencil for Nike ‘Write the Future’, which is bullshit if you ask me. Black Pencils did go to Old Spice (quite right), NOT THAT THEY EVEN SHOWED THE FUCKING COMMERCIAL. Loads of work, worthy of pencils didn’t even get nominated. FUCKING LOADS! The wine was watered down vile 11% plonk (in both colours). The beer was that 4% piss called Carlsberg. One of the few things they did right was to have a fun fair, but no sooner had it opened, it closed (think there was a 20 minute window or something like that). And all this for a rather paltry ¬£270 plus VAT. And we got a table, and they seat 10 people. Do the maths.
If D&AD had any sense, they would take ownership of the Great Room at Grosvenor House, now that the BTAA seems to have moved.
@ Ben Que: loads of things make me and John Hegarty different. I suspect you and he are also rather different.
Hegs has got a really garish, but beautifully cut, Paul Smith suit and a flinty side that is flintier than actual flint. So yes, you’re quite different to him, Ben. He also has ¬£56million hidden in his toy black sheep by his office door.
I have a brown pinstripe Paul Smith suit that’s only well cut when I’m 12 1/2 stone, a vaguely flinty side that’s getting less flinty by the day and ¬£56 hidden up a Barbie’s arse on the cistern of my downstairs loo.
Completely different.
but did you win?
Has anyone really got a well cut off-the-peg suit?
Probably not by your standards, Mark. But you can always shape your body to fit your suit (exercise/eating). Hard work, but possibly cheaper than a tailor.
Did I win what? At D&AD? No. I entered my own website in websites and writing for websites.
Oh well…
my Barbie’s full size and you can get pretty much anything up her arse, though sometimes you have to top up the amount of air in her. She loves my new office.
D&AD sucks balls.
It’s a big shame when you look back on just how influential and inspiring it used to be, especially to students.
And now, student awards (which are 99% shite) are mixed up with the big boys awards on the same night! RUBBISH.
People didnt know it was happening? Bullshit!
They just entered stuff and got fuck all so are all depressed and angry. And if they really didn’t know about it, then they have obviously not written a good ad in the last year worthy of entering.
Any good creative would still give there drawing arm for a pencil or two, as it will still give you an edge over someone that hasn’t got one when it comes to making a hire even if the ads that got the pencil were shit.
Im off to polish my pencils.
…sold any annuals yet?
Mr Denton
I think you can get a ‘well cut off-the-peg suit’ from a number of places. The key to it is being the right shape. I was once. Not any more sadly.
But you and I both know that The Flinty One has a relationship with Nottingham’s favourite son that means the phrase off-the-peg doesn’t really apply…
I’m looking forward to the Isn’t Cannes Shite? blog next week. Just heard that those phonetic Google ads that were on the tube won a gold. A gold. Won. A. Gold. Gold. Yeah. Won.
Cannes felches old mens’ hairless ringpieces.
Mark Denton. Can I not buy the annuals you’re not selling?
Having to release a white pencil just shows how desperate they are getting.
Mark: yes, I had two offers for the lot. The winning bidders will be receiving them tomorrow.
I also have some duplicates (don’t ask) for anyone who was disappointed to be unsuccessful.
Ermm, you sound somewhat unhinged.
Mister Gash – you can also get a well cooked burger from many restaurants but it aint the same as fillet steak.
Paul Рabout the time I was looking to complete my collection of annuals I was offered a pristine set by Edward Booth Clibborn, I think the figure quoted was £10,000. Give him a shout he might still have them.
As your opinion rocks, I’d love your most favourite one.
I like the yellow pencil case (’94). Lots of good work (Creek, Economist Shredder, etc.) and a great annual that lasts really well and doesn’t break.
Thanks for asking.
‘D&AD is now a dim, dribbly irrelevance that went from being an organisation of great power and respect to one that barely registers with the people who used to revere it’.
Your post warms the cockles of my heart.
D&AD is actually now more relevant to creatives globally rather than just those hanging around SOHO.
Michael Johnson’s pencil case cover is good as is some of the work in there. Dunlop, Boddington’s etc. I was gonna mention Economist shredder but I just couldn’t get passed ‘I never read the Economist. Management Trainee aged 42‚Äô from ’89 for sheer brilliance.
When did style overtake substance in your opinion?
Dave, I guess you can’t please everyone.
And perhaps the UK lack of interest has just coincided with its biggest creative slump in decades.
Or maybe one fed the other.
Just like some popular sports, we invent them, spread them around the world then watch as everyone else beats us at them.
Don’t sell the annuals. That just means the sons of bitches have won. ItWAS a great institution. Those annuals still mean something.
D&AD creative brief 2012 –
make the creative community give a shit about D&AD once again.
It wasn’t what won that was annoying, it was the awards do. There was no clear indication of what/who was winning. Everything had a little film, none that seemed to express the simple idea other than it had 12 million FB users and somebody tweeted about it.
The main thing was the way they ended the show. People got up. Then they started the show again to briefly mention Old Spice had received 2 BP and 3YP as people were halfway out of the door.
I’ve worked in the industry for a few years now and went to D&AD for the first time last week.
What a thoroughly dull and disappointing experience.
Hasn’t creative circle become the ‘Brit Awards’ show these days?
I remember reading something (from Trott maybe) recently saying that D&AD isn’t so good anymore because the jury doesn’t have enough Brits on it….
The whole D&AD thing is easy to fix. They just have to remember why they were set up in first place. A big part of which was celebrating British design and advertising creativity and then promoting it abroad.
In the main they’ve lost the support of their original audience and outside of the educational activity there’s not a great reason for them to exist.
It’s highly unlikely they’re going to knock Cannes off its pedestal from an international awards perspective, so they should take their USP back and be British again.
Simples.