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A “pure stage for ideas” is exactly the problem. That’s what’s art is for… not our business. We’re in the business of commercial creativity. If it’s not a real project with real results, it doesn’t matter.
Knowingly inflating scale or results is scamming. That's why you public companies who misrepresent their sales are heavily penalized and sometimes jailed by the SEC. Advertising just has no quality control. It's okay. Most things are a scam if you dig hard enough.
If it’s supposed to be a stage for pure creativity or ideas, then why have the requirement for real ads that actually ran at all? The results, the fact that the idea was creative AND so on target that the brand approved making it is part of the whole picture. It’s not just about fun ideas, it’s about executing those ideas in the real world despite the constraints.
I think Cannes would be better if they were hard on 1) cases being paid work, 2) cases being factually accurate, 3) cases actually accomplishing something (not necessarily business results, but SOMETHING).
If you have to fake results for your idea, perhaps your idea didn’t actually work.
And then logically, why should an idea that didn’t work get awarded?
I have seen juries award work that was widely despised by those who actually saw it in real life. Amazing when the only press you get is how bad the idea is, you just put the logo of the press on the Cannes board and use it to your benefit.
I agree that the good work need real results. But often times what I meant by “inflated” scale impact etc is because in other regions, it’s incomparable to US advertising scale and budget. I saw amazing real work winning in other regions that still will never get the celebration it truly deserves in comparison to Super Bowl ad with Jimmy Fallon opening in their cases. And because of lack of scale, the results doesn’t seem as big.
I hear you. Having said that, Cannes has never been a “Pure stage for ideas”. From croneyism to flooding the field with entries and beyond, pure it is not. In many cases, the case studies/videos/presentations are what’s really impressive.
As for “scams”, in this business, creative interpretation of data is common. But simply making up data? That is a hard “no” from me, and the entrants who do that deserve to be exposed and the hardware should go to the next best.
But it’s not a stage for all ideas. It’s for creativity made to sell products or services
Let’s be real, the results bit is mostly just to placate the “yeah it’s nice but did it WORK?” crowd. Which got a lot louder in the purpose award bait era. Which is absolutely logical. But has led to the increasingly BS stats we see in case studies today.
IMO, from what I’ve seen/heard, judges mostly just tick that mental box to justify their gut opinion on the work anyway, so I’m not sure it’s even that much of a barrier what the specific scale of results are.
Those small regions you mention represent +90% of the planet
The award shows have become the bane of our industry and one of the greatest accomplishments we could do to spare ourselves, our clients, and our job security would be to eradicate them completely. once the effies got compromised there was no single award show left that's worth more than the trouble they have created