What took them so long?

In this guest posting, Naomi Parry reports from the jury room on how the judging process is going for the inaugural Cannes PR Lions.

A few years ago, there was a chef who, when he finally scored his coveted third hat, stepped onto the stage at the awards ceremony and said: “What took you so effing long?” I remember thinking, what an ungrateful arsehole.

So it may well be that the jury for the inaugural Cannes PR Lions is a bunch of ungrateful arseholes, as the conversation on the first day of judging centred around: “What took them so effing long?” This is the 56^th International Advertising Festival, and the first year that PR has been included. There’s film, press, direct, promo, cyber, radio, outdoor, media and design, so it seems extraordinary that this is the first year that PR has been recognized as part of the communications and marketing mix.

Nevertheless, we’re here, it’s happened and the jury is unanimous in its determination to make the first PR Lions a success and to pick inspiring work. PR as a new category does throw up some challenges. Is it as easy to judge a PR campaign as it is, say, a radio campaign or an outdoor ad? Well, after two solid days of judging, I can assure you, it is. Great, creative campaigns stand out like the proverbial. Although I suspect things are going to get lively around day four, when we have to make final selections.