Fly or Die?

fly or die

Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Nerve wreaking pre-Kancil days The 4As and Big Billy will probably hate me for saying this but many (not all) ads that win Kancils (erm... the local advertising awards, not the car) are scam ads - the politically correct word being "initiatives". Most of these ads are agency initiated (hence the word) and may or may not flow with client's marketing objectives. Some are funded by clients, agencies or God forbid, the creatives themselves. Initiatives has its good and bad. Some initiatives do become part of a strong campaign that builds a brand, eg. Toyota Unser's ads that won the Golden Kancil a coupla years ago. It started out as an initiative. Client bought the campaign and ran with it. I still think those ads outstanding and truly deserving of its win. Initiatives also push creative boundaries. It helps creatives explore the brand in new and fresh ways, and it may yield awesome results. It keeps creatives on their toes and gunning for the proverbial outta da box idea. An initiative quickly turns distasteful when it is done with one objective in mind: to win. It'll run in some sleazy mag that's giving away free insertions. It'll be a poster hung at some obscure corner in the client's & agency's office. You know, just to check the boxes on the pre-requisites - that it's legit work. The judges, the client and the agency are probably the only ones who will ever see it. And, hell, when it wins at the Kancil, you peer at the tiny projected image and ask your colleague, "whazzit ah?" Which makes me wonder... If it is so good, why can't agency convince client to buy it and run with it? If it is so good, why does client feel that 'consumers will not get it'? Are good ads not supposed to be clear in their messaging and impactful in their approach? And why in the world is the industry awarding work that has no relevance to consumers at large? That's why I have a love-hate relationship with award shows. I'll love to win but I hate playing the game to win it. More so, when as a creative person, I am evaluated on how awarded I am. I do a lot of "pooh-poohed" bread and butter work that does not win awards. But it pays the salary of those scammy award winners, who lounge around the whole day "thinking". Bread and butter creatives deserve the recognition and the paycheck as well. Which probably boils down to this: why do I still try, year in and out to win some metal? Simple. Because it is there, Sir Edmund Hillary replied when asked why he wanted to conquer Mount Everest. It is there. But unlike the Everest, it's getting pretty lowdown. Pencil chewed at 5:01:00 pm //
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