The Cannes Lions: What do you actually have to do to get disqualified?

Great work, Tim. As a marketer working on the other side I think that these ad fests are such a joke.

Obviously a lot more than having the client publicly announce they did not produce the ad in question, and also using a logo without permission to enhance it’s chances in a public safety category.

@Caroline – you’re certainly not the only marketer that feels this way.
It’s a shame but unfortunately just about all award shows now make the ad industry look EVEN MORE self interested than it ever did.
How many million did Cannes make in profit last year? And Thirty-two gold awards given out last year at our own Award show (originally set up to be the “Hard” award) prove it’s all about the money.
But it’s not going to change in a hurry as awards are still a young creative’s best bet of a promotion/extra money/new job. So scam ads are still here and here to stay. I just wish the industry would go back to the days when you showed off your skills on a charity account and thus helped a lot more people than just the ad creators.

Thanks Tim and Mumbrella,
There’s you. And there is a $30million making machine. With lotsa hangers on and luvvies.
But I like the way you are using your slingshot….. You never know, the giant might just tumble….?

Tim,

Jeese you carry on.

40,000 entries and you manage to find one scam that the panel didn’t pick up (Im sure there’ll be more than one btw). And then you diss the entire Cannes Lions (again) because you surmise that this is a pattern because you picked up a few scams last year as well.Perhaps naively, Im still not quite clear what point you are trying to make? Are you saying that having uncovered these scams that the entire Cannes Lions system is a complete joke and no one should be involved, as you – standing on your morals – aren’t? If that’s it I think your logic is a bit thin.

OK, they’re definitely not perfect. Thanks for that bit of insight. And its a story worth publishing by your journo. But its one bad story amid many many good stories. Its not really that ground breaking to uncover a few idiots trying to put one over a panel trying to assess 40,000 entries coming in from all over the world. And you’re drawing a reasonably long bow to suggest that maybe those 4 points made all the difference in the case of one agency when the organisers have told you outright that it didn’t.

So far I don’t think you’ve snagged the equivalent of the advertising world FIFA story. You’ve just got the usual suspect dickheads who try to cheat, and with that you’re attempting to burn the whole event , the organisers and everyone else who went to the effort to apply and attend.

Do you really think that the other 39,000 or so entrants, who probably worked their respective bums off and were eager to win and show their wares deserve being smeared and not reported on because of a few idiots trying to cheat on the sidelines?

Don’t you, as one of the key industry information vehicles in Australia and Asia have some duty to report on those 39,000 who put in and did great work. And if it gives you a thrill, sure, do the story on the scammers and the judging needing to tighten up.

And what’s the issue exactly with them making a big profit? Im guessing Mumbrella 360 and your awards do pretty well on the profit front these days. ‘Excuse them for having a good business model’ maybe Tim?

How about you go next year, and write the good and the bad…because there was certainly a lot good going on there this year. Im almost sure, a lot more good than bad.

Jeremy

Is that Jeremy, the boss of B&T by any chance?

Shame. It’s antics like this that damage reputations.

Is the Clever Buoy any less of a scam?!?!

Jeremy should certainly be proud of B&T’s coverage of Cannes. They really covered the important celebrity stuff this year.

https://www.bandt.com.au/media/cannes-gets-classy-with-kim-and-kanye-chaos

Next headline:

B&T and mUmbrella face off in a display of ego worthy of a Cannes award

Interesting how battle lines are being drawn – the two serious trade titles -Mumbrella and AdNews have now aligned on this. The editor of AdNews called out Cannes today for sounding defensive and complacent http://www.adnews.com.au/news/.....cam-do-you

And now the industry jokes are both championing the “nothing to see here” brigade. Last year The Australians darren Davidson said it was a boring and predictable topic. Looks like B&T feels the same way.

as to campaign brief, last yea they were trying to organise a boycott of Mumbrella for embarrasing their agency mates. This year Theyve done some scam busting themselves.

Time
To choose sides guys!

As a client, I have to take Tim’s side.
My company operates to a certain corporate standards for governance, transparency and values.
Regardless of how good their performance was, C-suite players have been removed for non-adherance to them.
In the same way, we will not engage vendors and suppliers who openly disregard them.
Misrepresenting client consent, unauthorised use of logos, falsifying claims and facts are not behaviours right thinking clients approve of.
Thanks to Tim’s investigative reporting, certain suppliers and vendors will not be making the shortlist for my future pitches.
Your reporting is a public service to the client community.

Hi ‘Anonymyous’ and ‘Thankyou for Poking’.

Pleased to meet you both. Although Im not really sure who you are.

Yes, it is the ‘Jeremy’ you think it is. Touche. You guys/gals are really sharp. Thought I’d get away with it….. . But no, you’re onto me in a heart beat! Im embarrassed. How do these things work?

Few minor corrections though and now that Im in the open, some more info for you two in the interests of transparency….

As many anonymous people who like to have a dig on blogs turn out, you aren’t actually correct – at least in asserting that Im the ‘boss of B&T’. I think you’re probably wrong in suggesting that Im some sort of devious plant of B&T as well but judge for yourself after I carry on just a little here.

So lets start over.

Hi, Im Jeremy, who now works for The Wronghat Group, a consulting group that does all sorts of things – interesting events (at least I like to think so) , a shoulder to cry on for old media people trying to make things go a bit better than they have been, a keen investor in things/systems/solutions cloud based, and so on. Which, for the even only mildly savvy – surely that’s you ‘Anonymous’ ‘Thanks for Poking’ – you can read as ‘most days largely unemployed’.

Yes, I do have a history with B&T and Mumbrella as you so cleverly point out. It goes a bit like this (if you need more btw, I’ve got tons of time):

I was the boss of B&T about 14 months ago when I worked at Cirrus Media and before that at Reed for a long time. I was also, as things turn out, Tim’s boss about 6 or so years before that. And Martin (the other half of Mumbrella, who BTW, hardly ever gets a mention which I never quite understand because he’s surely a true and hardworking half of the Mumbrella success) and Alex and Camille and probably a few others off and on who work there (apologies if I’ve left anyone else current out).Tim did a great job as the editor of B&T back then. As did all the others, except maybe for Alex – sorry about this Alex – who you couldn’t fault in being a good journo, but you could certainly get a little tired of, on the whingeing side. (sorry Alex…you are a good journo though).

I work out of the same office as B&T and I do have a relationship with the B&T guys in which essentially they help me with my event about the issues facing companies as digital technologies escalate (called DAZE of Disruption – you should check it out, its really good , on in Melbourne on Dec 3-4 after a fantastic start in Sydney in May!), and I help their business called The Misfits (B&T and Travel Weekly) by doing things like helping them put in accounting systems (lol) and CMS systems etc. I do this for other publishers as well as a bit of consulting on the side. If anyone needs help please call, Im great value.

So essentially I do a bit of free and ‘excellent value publishing consulting’ for the Misfits in exchange for marketing help from B&T on Daze of Disruption and a free desk with Wi Fi and beers on Fridays. That’s most of it. For now at least. I do have a few other evil plans. Bryn knows all about them. Ask him. Oh, and I write the odd story from time to time as well, which drives the editor completely nuts as he thinks they’re all verbose and largely rants (a little like this).

‘Anonymous’ and ‘Thankyou for Poking’ let me be completely up front here and say that yes, I like B&T and I think you could say Im an admirer of the actual ‘boss of B&T’ – which is two people , David and Dan. I like them and B&T because while they are certainly not perfect, they are largely a positive outward bunch, they try mostly to be constructive (sometimes they fail, its true) and they like to have fun. For full transparency ‘Anonymous’ and ‘Thankyou for Poking’ I was also the boss of Dave and Dan at Cirrus and at Reed (are you bored yet?) And I liked them there too, like I liked Tim when he worked there and so on.

I once admired Mumbrella and Tim a great deal and Ive been a great supporter of them over the years when they ran Mumbrella and I was the actual boss of B&T and a competitor of theirs at Cirrus- well technically I was the boss…I didn’t actually do much in those years with B&T personally.

There can be no question that Tim and Martin have done a lot of interesting and groundbreaking stuff over the years and are deserving of a fair bit of praise for how creative, focussed and commercially savvy they’ve been (again Martin, does anyone know Martin?). The reason I liked them, among many, even when they competed against Reed, was that I learnt so much from what they were doing.

But honestly, ‘Anonymous’ and ‘Thankyou for Poking’, you’d be right in thinking that I don’t care as much for Mumbrella these days as I once did. So you sort of did get me on that one. But I think I’ve been fair because there is pretty good context why I made the comment about the Cannes Lions ‘scandal story’. Over the past couple of years I’ve gotten tired of the bitching and the nasty stuff. Im over the negative stuff…. just a little. To be fair, its not just Tim and his merry band of Mini-Tims (not meant to be cynical, promoting and training good journos’ was a good thing…but again, as things go, they also tend to follow the negative lead a bit). Its the anonymous comments that are so nasty and often ill-informed mostly. But its all encouraged in the end and often not that well corrected, so Im sticking with my view…its all just a bit negative and over the top. Of course, Tim always used to say, ‘forgive me for having a business model’. I do forgive that. Its not easy in Media these days. And as far as business models goes, it does seem to work. But does that mean I have to like it, ‘Anonymous’ and ‘Thankyou for Poking’?

‘Anonymous’ and ‘Thankyou for Poking’, forgive me for making comment here but I honestly thought it would be OK to contribute to the conversation and debate about the Cannes Lions. I wasn’t planning on making comment on Mumbrella and B&T. But you brought it up. And I wanted to clear things up for you two.

At this point, the editor of B&T, John – really nice guy btw, who again for transparency, works just a few metres away from me and having had the odd red wine with him on Friday arvo’s at the K&B I can admit I quite like (btw, and again for transparency, yes, its the same John who Mumbrella outed recently as none other than the sexist bigot ex editor of FHM et al – whoa, if I keep on having to be transparent Im never getting to get to the point here so let me press on) would throw his hands up and cry out, what the crap is Jeremy carrying on about now. Can’t he just get to the point for shits sake. Its OK John. Im getting there…you do have to feel for John.

So, ‘Anonymous’ and ‘Thankyou for Poking’ , what do you think about the Cannes Lions and this new ‘scandal’? Do you think that no one should attend, and it should be boycotted? Is it worse because they make a lot of profit? Or, is this perhaps not standing on a high horse just a little too much, and smearing a whole lot of interesting and good among a bit of bad for the sake of….? Actually, Im not sure what its for the sake of. That was my point John. I got there.

Maybe its the business model? And….it just feels like its become a habit of late for the Mumbrella guys and….now I’ve forgotten what I was talking about, sorry.

Oh, I remember now, Im just saying ‘Anonymous’ and ‘Thankyou for Poking’ ….maybe now that you’ve outed me so successfully you might like to actually contribute to the discussion. And if you feel the urge, say who you are….don’t feel like you have to go there btw….I don’t want to be pushy. Im sure you have your reasons.

All the best btw you two, and if you’re looking for someone to help with making ‘old media’ chug along just a little bit better with the odd cloud based system (or not), OR, if you’re interested in DAZE of Disruption (Dec 3-4 Melbourne Town Hall, don’t miss it), please do give me a call.

Last thing. No matter what, Im not coming back on to comment again so if you want to talk about this stuff anymore just ring me please. Believe it or not, I actually don’t go in for public stuff too much, and for reasons unbeknown to me, I just let myself go here and broke a rule, which was to not read Mumbrella any more and certainly don’t waste energy commenting on it. Something’s went wrong here I guess….

Jeremy

(not the Boss of B&T anymore, unfortunately…or perhaps fortunately, given I see their figures on the odd occassion)

Can somebody please explain this to me using short sentences and small words?

I get that Cannes Lions might not want to upset WPP by disqualifying one of their agencies.

But there’s so much evidence here, surely they couldn’t reasonably be angry with the Lions for disqualifying VML?

What am I missing?

What have you got to do to be disqualified?

1. Cheat.
2. Be from a small agency
3. Don’t be from a big agency.

a good piece of investigative journalism (which all in our industry will benefit from) distracted by (presumably) drunken ramblings.

Hi Adam

Ramblings yes. But sadly perhaps I hadn’t had a drop . Im thinking I just had nothing to do today. But thanks for your kind thoughts on my comments about The Lions. John, the editor of B&T hears your pain on how I express myself. You could be soul mates.

As a matter of interest it’s 11 pm now and I’ve had a few beers but ….really? That was investigative journalism? I could ramble on about that assessment for a long while I reckon. Not saying it wasn’t a good get mind you. But now I am quite feasibly a rambling drunk so if you’ll excuse me I’m going to leave it there.

Also I’m very aware I said I wouldn’t write again here which I’m really going to concentrate hard on doing starting from now.

….should be easy because I’m nearly home and Im dying to go to bed.

Cheers

Jeremy

VML are a genuinely good agency with genuinely talented people.

Why they would feel they need to be part of this sorry situation is beyond me.

Very poor judgement on their part, notwithstanding the ridiculousness of Cannes.

VML has been sucked into Y&Rs desperate awards lust.
And to prove which of WPP’s many networks is ‘better’.
It’s all who’s got a bigger dick among all of WPPs global chief creative officers.
Sadly VML is now part of than insanity.
They were acquired because they did good work. But now they have showed they sold more than just their shares to the big bad networks.
Services are a commodity.
Principles and values are rarer.
Let’s hope fudging for awards is not a slippery slope to getting creative with time sheets, man hours, and other billables.

C’mon Jeremy. Don’t be shy. Tell us a little about yourself.

It’s time agencies are held accountable for this kind of BS.

Clients should refuse to work with agencies who enter awards. Boycott this joke of a culture. Seriously… do doctors give each other awards for ‘best diagnosis in a general practitioner’s office’? If you try to explain Cannes to anyone outside the ad industry most laugh at our pathetic need to self-congratulate. Clients are getting the short end of the stick when creative resources (and their ECDs) are spending more time coming up with imaginary concepts for award ‘glory’ than focusing on the real paying work.

It’s a cancer rife in the industry. Agencies chew up and spit out creatives based on the awards they win, after expecting them to work like dogs just for the privilege to enter a piece of scam work into Cannes so their bosses can get a pat-on-the-back from global CCOs. How about we spend all the millions of dollars that go into Cannes entries into paying our staff sufficient wages for the amount of overtime they do? Or better yet donate it to charity? Ad agencies doing something good for once. And I’m not talking about saving-African-children-and-homeless-people-by-beacon-powered live-streamed-drones good.

And BTW, VML not only screwed up by entering a scam idea without client permission – they ripped off an idea from 2012 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4ziZ23FK6c

Hey guys… word from New York is that we need to up the quota on Cannes entries this year. The ECD’s feeling a little nervy. Here’s a list of clients on roster. We need to stay back this week and think of a Cannes-worthy concept. Hmm, road safety could be a ripe area. Let’s just see what else has been done overseas for ‘inspiration’.

If that doesn’t reek of award desperation I don’t know what does. Shame.

@Ricki
As above poster notes, Y&R have been on a big awards push these last few years, from a regional perspective. Definitely some insecurities at play. Shame really, but maybe it is a last gasp from a struggling agency network desperate to impress clients. Could very easily backfire.

As for Cannes, what is intended as a celebration of advertising could very soon be its last post. Agencies are still pushing incredible amounts of cash behind entries, but to what purpose when clients are increasingly ambivalent, regardless of scam? So you won a Bronze in one of 20-odd categories? Great. For a local NGO? Even better. Just what I need to look after my multi-million dollar business.

The entire festival is increasingly looking like one of those pageant shows where all the moms pay to enter and everyone leaves with a trophy of some sort. Even shortlists are celebrated ffs. Times running out folks…

It chaps my arse when senior productive creative teams get cut so the agency can afford to hire some network mandated ‘hot’ team who costs more and cannot deliver on real briefs but can only scam.
I am embrassed when my agency gets implicated when said scams are exposed and as an account lead, have to explain the BS/spin in accordance with the agency hymn sheet.
I hate padding time sheets with time wasted on pursing mom & pop retailers just to get their ‘client letter’ for the scams.
I hate asking clients for longer deadlines because the teams are scrambling for award ideas the ECD needs for his next global creative conference or working on casestudy videos to legitimize the scams.
I hate presenting CEs from production houses to our retainer clients knowing its padded to execute scams.
I hate begging media shops for cheap space just weeks before the awards deadline is up. (Plan ahead for fuck’s sake!)
I hate being told there’s no money for a cost of living increase for my staff while my global bosses live it up and set world records for CeO remunerations.
I hate negotiating for an increase in retainer fees because I know the extra money never goes to the people who actually do the work but to the scammers and award shows.
Most of all, I hate the condescending way these scammers treat their co-workers as they leave for the bar at 6pm while the good ones staying late into the night pumping out work that pays.
I am go glad I left this whole insanity behind and joined the client side where I have half the stress and twice the pay.
I reccomend anyone who feels the same to do so.
The grass really is greener on the other side.

hehe cheating in the advertising industry.

what did you lot expect? civil, respectful, honest behaviour?

If you’re in a global agency this is the standard procedure when it comes to awards –

Chief Creative Officer hands down a metal quota for award shows to each office

Local ECD has to meet award quota and instructs creative department to come up with proactive ideas that can get up on the wall outside of paying client briefs.

Pressure applied to junior teams and interns eager to make work for their books so as to retain their place in agency. Chances are they do nothing but proactive work for half a year.

Proactive ideas are evaluated by ECD on metal or shortlist potential (points make all the difference to an agency winning the network of the year award)

Quarterly reviews with CCO / regional ECDs to review and select the proactive work to ‘get made’.

Proactive work is then handed to unsuspecting account teams, who are told to ‘sell it in’ to clients or find a client that will make it.

Client tells agency to sod off. Or agency convinces client that creative retention on account is important and awards make up for the lack of award-wining briefs coming from client.

Work is ‘bought’, ECD calls in favours with production company, artists, photographers etc to produce proactive work. In lieu of payment, they are promised they will get work from that same client or another of the agencies paying client jobs.

Client agrees to insert proactive work into existing media schedule somewhere inconspicuous or agency takes responsibility for running it.

Agency enters awards and circulates its entries to all its judges on award panels. Judges advised to find other judges friendly to their agency to support the work etc and reciprocate.

Awards are won – ECD gets bonus, and elevated industry profile. CCO gets bonus, maintains image of award-wining leader, despite having nothing to do with the work or client that won it. Judges more award shows, talks at conferences gets profiled in industry press.

Both eventually switch agencies to help ‘improve the work / agency profile / capitalise on new business wins’. Press release touts their many award-winning campaigns, but neglects to mention any success measures from a client perspective.

Junior creatives responsible for award-winning idea finally get something in their book, and capitalise on the win by switching agencies, induced by increased salary and desire of new agency ECD & CEO to be seen to be hiring ‘award-winning creatives’.

Client’s day to day work still the same.

@ days of our lives

Ain’t that the truth?

@ days of our lives – Bang on 1000% correct

I agree, somewhat, but I need to clarify a couple of things:

“Seriously… do doctors give each other awards for ‘best diagnosis in a general practitioner’s office’?”

Yes. Pharmaceutical companies give doctors amazing trips (sorry ‘conferences’) to Bora Bora for the lucky doctors who prescribes the most (insert anti-depressant brand). Yes, in Australia. Weird, huh?

In fact all sales professions have awards. Please remember that’s our job. To sell. Not to change the world or be honest Susans, but to sell pants to the nudists.

Personally I think awards should be like those stickers on wine labels. We know which wine is better because it won at a prestigious show. Some wines mislead by putting lots of gold stickers from crappy regional shows, but anyone into wine can spot the difference.

The difference between the wine industry and advertising is the wine industry doesn’t make wines specifically to win… oh wait. No, they do. Their flagship range, which is normally well out of the price range of the ordinary drinker. And it’s by how many awards their flagship range has won that people judge the rest of their range.

The thing that really grinds my gears, as someone who has won buckets of metal on real, very effective work is people blaming award shows for gutless, cheap cheating work.

Clients aren’t idiots, well if they are, they’re highly overpaid idiots. They know the agencies who win awards on the back of solid, effective work, and they know the agencies who do crap scammy print / ‘innovation’ work. They know what has run properly and what hasn’t.

If you seriously think awards are the problem, you’re misguided. They’re a reward for work well done. The problem is agencies that haven’t done the work seeking a reward. They’re the ones clients should drop in place of agencies who do real, award winning work.

To use an example, Clems Melbourne have consistently produced massive, award winning campaigns for real clients that get real results. And who wins almost every pitch in Melbourne?

Not McCann’s, not Y&R, certainly not JWT.

Jeremy

Jeez you carry on

Submitting comments publically surely requires an understanding on “Post etiquette” however as your ramblings are now in the public domain I would like to add 2 cents and contribute to the “posts”.

First up, I am pretty certain you have never been to the Cannes awards unlike Tim.

Your comments appear unwarranted, cheap, tired and a maybe a smattering of being jealous in relation to the great work that the Mumbrealla team have done to-date.

I am passionate about Mumbrealla ethics and also their business model , especially as it was I that persuaded Martin to join me from the UK to be in Sydney, and in turn I’m pretty sure Martin persuaded Tim from the Northern Hemisphere, and dare I suggest that the evil Alex is also from the mother country.

I remember fondly on how much you personally liked the UK & US talent that I persuaded to come to sunny Sydney. We LAFA’d all the time about UK talent and their mannerisms.

Anyway, I digress…. Martin Tim et al at Mumbrealla have founded an excellent business, channel, platform and pretty much I would expect funded by them and not from an Ivory Tower. Dedication, tenacity and hard work – plus the incumbents were in the main pretty staid and I can say that as I had B&T in my portfolio years ago.

I would see your unemployment as a great time to recoup and work out what does Jeremy really want to do and how can he contribute in the space he now finds himself. Maybe it’s a Scary place with all this mass of digital innovation around and of course younger hungrier talent around making headway.

I would be keen to hear personally about your new gig “Daze of Disruption” as you certainly have the credentials according to your bio. 043 9923 124 is my direct number and if I have time I would be happy to talk at your next gig about how to change a publishing model around and be in the fray in this Disruptive time.

Great to hear you are working with accounting systems and CMS – I suggest Xero and WordPress – lots of people use them and they are in the “cloud” and you can run them offshore at minimal cost.

I think you may have the “Winter Blues” with some of your quotes….

“I was the actual boss of B&T and a competitor of theirs at Cirrus- well technically I was the boss…I didn’t actually do much in those years with B&T personally.”

Interesting statement – Good Job hey! Or was this an evil plan…

“Maybe its the business model? And….it just feels like its become a habit of late for the Mumbrella guys and….now I’ve forgotten what I was talking about, sorry.”

Interesting statement – Hopefully you can keep on track when you run an event, it’s important to be on message, lucid and timely.

“Believe it or not, I actually don’t go in for public stuff too much, and for reasons unbeknown to me, I just let myself go here and broke a rule, which was to not read Mumbrella any more and certainly don’t waste energy commenting on it. Something’s went wrong here I guess….”

I could offer a view though I’d like to discuss it before I do though – 0439 923 124 …..

Hats off to the Mumbrealla team and may they continue for many more years to come.

Awards. Awards?

Doctors accepting trips to Bora Bora, paid for by the drug lords is pretty awful, isn’t it?

Creatives, creating and being judged, perhaps not so evil?

Although…: what if that creative house helps to get kids hooked on nicotine in developing countries? Whilst the Sud of Bonjour probably won’t screen an ad that actually shows kids smoking, (to promote tobacco). Are any ‘award winners’ actively working with big tobacco, in particularly, helping to flog tabs in developing countries?