The false end of false recognition
I’m sorry I can’t be more definitive than that, but I only have Mr. Kassaei’s words to go on, and they’re frustratingly slight.
The overall suggestion of the article (entitled ‘The End Of False Recognition’, if any of you fancied sending something in to Private Eye’s Pseuds column) is that DDB is finally fed up with award schemes being overpopulated by ads created purely to win awards, so much so that YOU WILL SEE LESS WORK FROM DDB AGENCIES AT SOME OF THE SHOWS!
That there’s fightin’ talk, Goddammit!
You want more strong words? Brace yourself, ’cause here they come:
‘We have to stop the madness. Not only by talking about it, but by also doing something against it.’
But what?
‘We will be coming up with a plan to divest ourselves from the madness.’
YEEEAAHHHHHHHhhhhhhh…
Huh?
You’ll be coming up with a plan? And it’s going to do something as vague as divesting yourselves from the madness? So to avoid the crime of only talking about a solution, you’re going to talk about a solution?
Jesus.
Look, Mr. Kasseai, it’s not that hard. I can do it for you right now: just say that no DDB agency will enter work that has not originated from a proper client brief and run on a proper media plan. Then tell the ECDs of your agencies they’ll be fined a month’s salary if any ad is entered that does not fit those criteria. Done.
He continues: ‘There will be a lot of people out there who will hate us, who will point fingers at us and accuse us of being harmful to award shows and our industry in general.’ Sorry, Amir. No one’s going to give a monkey’s. You’ve made the most anodyne promise in the history of an industry littered with anodyne promises. My last fart will inspire more hatred.
Finally, he invokes Bill Bernbach: ‘But we are lucky. At DDB we have always had a foundation built by Bill Bernbach at our core to guide us to be brave. As Bill once said, “If you stand for something, you will always find some people for you and some people against you. If you stand for nothing, you will find nobody against you and nobody for you.”
But you haven’t actually stood for anything. Bill also said ‘it isn’t a principle until it costs you money’. Let’s see you put some reality behind these words, then we’ll know whether we should stand with you or not.
People have been complaining about the gaming of awards shows for years. Coming out and saying you also oppose it is pretty uninspiring. Coming out and saying you’re going to do something about it without saying what that is seems like the kind of depressing flim-flam that Mr. Bernbach would have fired people for, especially when the alternative is so simple.
One last thing: an amusing ad placement next to the article…
full disclosure: I worked briefly with Amir at DDB Berlin on Volkswagen and it turned out great.
fuller disclosure: He was a cool guy. Hope he quit smoking.
I think he’s onto something. Cannes has become a closed masturbatory loop divorced from reality. the organization that owns it just did an IPO for example.
Oh, I agree with what he says. I’d just like to see him do something solid that we can point to and admire.
Also, it’s not really a real problem in the real world. I do know that DDB spent a fortune on entering awards shows (and buying statues) when I worked there.
Well, that’s another good point: does this all matter, really?
Maybe if they spent the saved cash on helping the homeless…?
Hahahahhahahahhahahahhahahhahahhahah!!!!!!
Christ, I’m just sick of it all. The hollow posturing. The pretentious crusading to “change the world” through the “power of ideas.” It’s like the entire industry is trapped in some inescapable TED talk where everyone is expected to be a “thought leader”, taking a stand with these “bold”, “thought leadering” beliefs. But they aren’t. They’re just a load of self-important gobshites with un-insightful, populist opinions or (in this instance) lazily banal points of view.
We can “stop the madness” quite simply: By keeping our fucking mouths shut, and just getting on with the work.
Grrr.
Nice. Pint?
Is there a favourite button? I couldn’t agree more with John.
Oh thank god. I thought I was the only one. Can we form a support group?
I think some bean counter at DDB finally figured out that awards cost more money than they bring in. Then they got their figurehead to stand on a box and herald the “end of false recognition”, with a quote from Big Bill to go along.
Exhibit A:
https://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/bosch_refrigerator_sabertooth_filet
I think this adequately illustrates from whence he cometh.
Sorry, wrong link – as a print ad I guess that’s legit.
This, however…
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Fzq94YVbHHM/TCPOcdJHoRI/AAAAAAAAz4E/jOYCpAHsp9E/s1600/cannes_lions_winners_47.jpg
It says it was seen by 75,000 people. Must be legit as well.
It seems like he’s pulling up the ladder that got him to the top of the food chain.
As a side note, I seem to remember A&E DDB announcing last week that they were axing the term “digital” from their job descriptions because, you know, “digital” is like – SOOOOO the norm now why even say it, man.
I think what the industry loses from the network’s award entries, we’ll more than get back in vacuous press releases and dismal innovations.
Karmarama have never entered awards, it hasn’t done then any harm.
How do you know it hasn’t done them any harm?
Fair point. It may have done them harm, but it’s an agency that’s grown quickly without the need for awards.
“We may be saying goodbye to the made-up empty titles like Agency of the Year, Network of the Year or whatever. ” Amir Kassaei
How odd then that when you visit the DDB website you see titles like Agency of the Year etc.
Surely before writing your article Mr Kassaei it would have been prudent to rid your website of these ’empty titles’.
We’ve never entered awards. Whether it has done us harm or good I honestly couldn’t tell you. But it was our principle and we have stuck with it. Can’t say I’m very impressed by this halfway-house, non-point-of-view, non-principle from DDB though.