D&AD: same old shit
Here’s an article that sums up what’s been said in this country for the last few years.
But it’s just one reason why D&AD is a dismal load of bollocks these days. Here are some others:
1. The standard of advertising in general has slipped a great deal in the last few years. If the best advertising isn’t as interesting or inspiring as it was a few years ago, why care?
2. There are so many other ways to see the best work of the year before D&AD shows it to you. It’s late, it’s irrelevant and it’s kind of sad.
3. The judges are more international, but they’re also of a lower standard. Check ’em out. Do you give a shit what many of these people think of your work?
4. They pride themselves on diversity of categories but they are too thick to understand that giving out Pencils for Interface and Navigation for Websites and Digital Design means that Pencils don’t matter so much. A bunch of Pencils on a shelf used to mean that their owner was a fucking good creator and executioner. Now it means that you can design a button that brings up a screen really well. Who gives a toss? I’m sure it’s difficult and worth giving prizes for, but really, 99% of us do. Not. Give. A. Fuck.
5. God, I’ve written this so many times. They’re making loads of money. They couldn’t care less. Why do I care? I’m not sure. But good advertising matters, and D&AD used to help that happen. Now it doesn’t. It just makes money and most advertising continues to spiral down the crapper.
What a shame.
Can you do anything to help?
Yep: don’t enter D&AD. No one gives a shit if you win, and you’ll only encourage them to prize cash over creativity (just like those clients you really hate).
Well said. And why are there still quite a few jurors TBC? Can’t they get people to judge it any more. I used to think the sun shone out of D&AD’s arse. Now I know the sun shines in Cannes
Art Direction – Sir John Hegarty, Martin Galton, Matt Allen
Press – Graham Fink, Emer Stamp
Writing for Advertising – Ben Walker, Graeme Hall
I think we’re still in safe hands, although I wasn’t arsed looking at the other categories.
I remember when two of my mates won a student pencil and they never received their prize money (£250 at the time). Repeated calls fell on deaf ears.
For that reason, I’ve also thought they were a shower of cunts. That, and they never gave any of my entries a look-in. Cunts.
Of course there are some good people on the juries (you missed out Mary Wear from the excellent writers) but there used to be nothing but good people on the juries.
I’m two years into my career and I’ve heard I need to win awards to a) get a pay rise and b) get my next job.
As awards shows like this become more irrelevant and command less and less respect, what should we be using to make a name for ourselves? Just the work itself in the hope that people will think it’s good off their own backs rather than having the reassurance that it’s been awarded?
I can speak for a few young teams I know when I say that award shows don’t reflect our ambitions. We don’t want to win these awards. I’m not entirely sure what we want instead though.
Eggnog, that is an excellent question, one to which I’m not sure I have the answer. For years people have accepted awards as the least-bad way of assessing creative ability, but what’s the alternative?
The tricky part of it is that many CDs don’t have the time to assess every bit of work that appears in the real world, and they might miss all but the best online/integrated ideas entirely. That means they end up relying on awards to give them an idea of how well an idea was received.
Ummm……………………….
Bollocks. No idea.
Anyone else?
all ad awards shows have struggled to maintain relevancy in recent years. And adding stupid categories in a pathetic attempt to seem relevant in the “digital” age only serves to further dilute the, ahem, value of the awards. D&AD was at its peak when UK advertising was at its peak.
i think eggnog has the right idea. maybe the day of the advertising awards has come and gone. At least Cannes is a good pissup.
too many categories, too many no-mark judges, head in the sand greed.
you could write a book about what’s wrong with D&AD.
they should reward good ideas, in whatever medium.
the andys has interesting categories.
cannes is just bigger and sunny.
controversially, i’d scrap craft, hive it off to a different show.
concentrate on the big stuff.
it’s not as simple as it used to be – press, telly, posters.
D&AD is floundering.
not sure the new people elected to the council fill me with much confidence.
and, alas, Rosie Arnold doesn’t come across as much of a mack the knife. in fact, quite the opposite.
maybe next year.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “Chuck all your bleedin awards into the biggest fuckin’ dustbin you can find” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYBj_qAJtRA
Completely agree with Eggnog. Awards aren’t the creative currency anymore.
I can’t honestly see a solution that easily slots in to replace them. There’s no doubt the industry has changed – for the worse, creatively. I put this down to shrinking budgets and scared clients (which then allow account people to start throwing their weight around).
Nobody seems to give two shits about decent work – and until they do, awards or not, creatives will just part of the production line.
Joy.
Oh and there’s an account person at my agency with a pencil on their desk. Explain that one.