Awards

Oh, Canada. Here's a (insert word here) promotional video for the Canadian Marketing Association's annual awards show. We're not sure how to feel about it, despite how cool the jump-rope action is. In it, Geoffrey Roche of Lowe Roche goes head-to-head with Karsten Ruwoldt of Audi Canada in a jump-rope battle (of wits!) and then it ends.

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Apparently, the Cannes Lions are on crack.

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As it slowly winds down on the French Riviera, the horde of industry players gathered at the festivities were privy today to some Lions winners, activist speeches, brands on the hot seat and more.

-AKQA presented the five winning Future Lions concepts, which span the globe from Melbourne to New York. link

-India comes out of nowhere to collect 23 Lions this week thanks largely in part to its Ogilvy and Publicis divisions. link

-Bridge Worldwide's "Can Hands" for Pringles garnered the Gold Cyber Lion. link

-Live Aid creator and one-time rocker Bob Geldof gave an impassioned speech on our dwindling ecological state at the ACT Responsible/Euro RSCG seminar. Barack Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe, meanwhile, shared some secrets at DDB's seminar on the Audacity of Successful Brands. link

-Google CEO Eric Schmidt thinks Microsoft's Bing is cute. link

-Senior execs from Kraft, P&G, J&J and Mickey D's were subject to the stern moderating of Martin Sorrell in a debate on digital and agency relations. link

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More: "And Your Wrath of Cannes Winner Is..."

...Mr. Alan Kwon (above), whose LinkedIn profile listed him as an associate art director at RTCRM in New York, but who is now a freelancer. Kwon picked up the ceremony's top honor, the Grand Coney, in the Junior Category for his tearaway print ad for Crunch gyms featured below.

It was a somewhat surprising Wrath this year as the Juniors "shamed the holy crap" out of the Seniors from the Steady Gigless Category, who went home without a top prize and could barely scrape up an honorable mention.

Kudos to Alan Kwon as well as Woods Witt Dealy & Sons, the Digennaro crew and our intrepid editor Matt Van Hoven, who played judge, jury, social butterfly and night owl at the event before taking off early for a Midwestern weekend.

More: "What You Missed at Wrath of Cannes"

Kiran will be telling you about the winners tomorrow because I am too zonked to remember the top dog's name (or his cowering runners-up) so for now it's a nifty slideshow! Guitar Hero was played, yummy Pork Slap beer was served (and I wasn't even paid to say that) and the work was unfairly judged. Well, only because none of us was qualified to make the distinction that sent one young chap home with a bike; er, the promise of a bike. Harry, I defer to you.

In the interest of saying goodbye to 3:02 a.m., here's the pictures you could have been in.

More: "Your Wednesday Cannes Roundup"

It's reaching peak time in the French Riviera as the major Cannes Lions are starting to be awarded. Along with the pomp & circumstance, hardware and pats on the back, other events have unfolded including bigwig speeches, fireside chats, nonstop schmooze-fests and interactive rivalry.

-Today was a good day for South Africa, with TBWA\Hunt\Lasgaris, Johannesburg nabbing the Outdoor Grand Prix for the Zimbabwean-based 'Fight the Regime', 'Cheaper than Money', 'Trillion Dollar Billboard', 'Z$250 000 000' and 'Wallpaper' efforts.

Net#work BBDO, Johannesburg, meanwhile, won the Radio Grand Prix for its trio of Virgin Atlantic Airlines executions. link

-JWT, Tokyo took home a Media Grand Prix for its "Kit Kat Mail" effort, pleasing recipients with sweet, edible postcards while miraculously eliciting positive emotions from postal workers. Neighbor Dentsu also celebrated a win for Media Agency of the Year. link

-U.K.-based ZenithOptimedia took home a Gold Media Lion for its "The World is Noisy Enough" campaign for AEG washing machines. The setting couldn't be more fitting. link

-Schematic's interactive "Touchwall" continues to do battle 15 yards away from Microsoft's "Surface" for interactive touch-screen dominance. link

-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer left Redmond for Cannes to discuss his company's increasing focus on digital advertising. Mentions of the "G" word were surely sprinkled throughout. link

-Raconteurs rejoice! Leo Burnett Worldwide and Contagious sat a packed audience down for a fourth round of Wildfire Stories, which examines how seven types of narrative influence today's advertising. link

More: "In Cannes, Who's Tweeting Too Hard?"

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As if we haven't mentioned it enough, tomorrow in New York we're celebrating the industry's best and brightest (who happen to be/reside here) at Wrath of Cannes from 7-10 pm at the East River Bar. Hosted by: PorkSlap Ale (for a buck!), IRO Cycle (I really want one), Hickory Farms (Cheese Balls!), Woods Witt Dealy & Sons (again, cheeseballs) and AgencySpy (insert insult here).

Musical guest: You. No, that's not the name of the band. Adholes can be thanked for the Rockband setup that you can play all night. Who needs real musicians? Ad folk can do anything!

There are only two categories in the event: Juniors and Steady Gigless (note from WoC: If you ogle or hit on the juniors, you will be asked to leave!).

Big thanks to Woods Witt Dealy & Sons for making this happen. And IRO Cycle which in this blogger's opinion make some of the coolest bikes around and has provided one for the grand prize*.

And if you're not a junior or unemployed, stop by anyway. No one important from your agency will be there, so it's all good. Don't bring your cards unless you plan to roll something in them (agencyspy does not promote nor condone the use of illegal drugs, especially if you get caught).

RSVP here: didier at wrathofcannes dot com. All entries must be made by 8 p.m. tomorrow!

Those who can go to the Riviera. Those who can't go to the East River.

Did I mention I'm judging? I'm judging.

(*wwd&s, agency spy, East River Bar, and all sponsors bear no responsibility if you fall and bust your dumb ass.)

This Pedestrian Council of Australia ad was made by Saatchi in 2001. That same year, a TV ad for the PCA won the famed Gold Film Lion in Cannes! The piece above, however, didn't.

Look at the nice the things the PCA said about Cannes way back when, "The International Advertising Festival...features the most prestigious advertising awards. Around 9,000 delegates from the advertising and allied industries gather each year at this famous event to celebrate the crème de la crème of creativity in all major media. The Gold Lion award was won in a field of over 6,000 entries from all over the word."

We're fairly certain they meant "world" but it was the Wild West back in '01. And we all lived through it.

The ad that did win that year is pasted after the jump. It includes Mark Chopper Read, an Australian ex-con and complete badass, who talks about all the wounds he picked up in prison. There's a lot, because from the age of 20-38 he was only out of jail for a total of 13 months. Compelling dude.

The long and short of it is the only reason I learned any of this is because this guy tweeted me and then I looked at some other things he said when I came upon this quote, which I found particularly lame at the time: "Seriously, but seriously, check out the movie 'Chopper', with Eric Bana. Then check out the Wikki on Mark Brandon Read, the dude it's about."

Who was said tweeter? Click continued to find out!

More: "Australia's Ad Execs Are High On Drugs. All Of Them."

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The Cannes Lions Festival of Advertising Might is underway and you (like me) are sitting at your desk, looking out the window (if there's one nearby) wishing that one day you too will get paid to sip bubbly drinks on a Parisian shore. We've got a lot of years on the Brooklyn shore first, tho.

"Yes, I Have Tw*tted"
For those of you who want to keep up with the lighter side of the week's events, we've got some things for you. On Twitter, follow our very own spies via @spyincannes. It's their job (yeah, there's more than one, though they're sharing a Twitter feed) to keep you in the know re: the good stuff. The other guys will have the breathless "this is what Jim said about the recession." But who cares? We know you want what we've got, so go get it.

"What? the inter Webs"
And since AgencySpy is all about you, Tribble and I have set up Aosep.com where your fellow in-country ad folk will share what they see. If there's one good story told there, it will have been worth it. If there's none, it means we've succeeded in creating another useless Web site.

In conclusion
Lest you forget, I'll be at Wrath of Cannes this Thursday eve for what may be the most important award show of the year. Why say this I? Well beer is a buck, it's on the East River at Brooklyn's finest (East River Bar), it's free and all about the juniors and most of the people who attend will probably get laid. When in Williamsburg! See you there.

More: "Canned? Creative? Come to Wrath of Cannes"

Ask Dabitch Wappling is by and far one of the top adbloggers. She's not only host to one of the largest ad databases, but also a fantastic person to know (even if only via inter webs). She's going to Cannes, and had asked a friend and former copywriter to attend as her cameraman for AdlandTV. But the Cannes folks won't let her cameraman in because (uh oh) he used to be a copywriter.

Lame. Watch the video in all its Euro-accented goodness for an explanation. We love Adland, Commercial Archive and really hope they get in. C'mon Cannes, don't be dbags yet! The show hasn't even started.

More: "If You're in Cannes, Tweet This Tag: #cdbags, Head to Aosep.com"