YES! YES! YES! The fun was back big time this year. I know, the economy sucks, the work sucks, the budgets suck, your bonus sucks and you suck. So what. For some reason Cannes was a riot. Everyone was smiling and acting like they liked each other, well almost everyone. I think we are close to hitting bottom. We are all tired of hearing each other bitch so we did what any smart ad person does. We partied . We all mixed together, the big shots, the little people [I don’t know any], the rich, the phony rich, the old, the new, the stars, the never was [Ferg] and my favorite, THE LEOPARD LADIES [if you don’t know, don’t ask] . Even the press was smiling and probably drunk on someone else’s money. The gloom and doom guys, you know who they are. They make a living telling us all that we suck. It’s all over for the ad game and they have the answers. Just what we need, another middleman consultant telling us we really suck. I do not need them.
It is the creative stupid and creatives can’t create out of fear and testing. They need to have fun and be encouraged to take a leap. Back off. Management by aggression doesn’t work anymore. TV 30s, 60s, 15s, viral, web, new media, outdoor, cyber space techno, blah blah blah. It is still all about the idea from PEOPLE, not hyper space. ENOUGH with your e-mail, cell phone. How about you talk to me in fucking person? NAH.
I am off the booze and drugs, HELP. So Cannes was a little different. This year I remember most of it. Too bad for both me and you. Let’s talk about the actual show. It stinks. It is bad Las Vegas. American Idol without the songs. Nobody goes unless you won, or if it’s your first year or some client makes you. They make you wait in the heat to see a bad comic joke about an industry he knows nothing about. The Brits got it right. They haven’t gone in 20 years. Who runs this thing, Paula Abdul. It is all about the money. SURPRISE. Pay to enter, pay to go, pay to be a delegate and even pay for the Lion when and if you win. This beats production. Oh yeah, the dollar ain’t worth shit anymore.
I also noticed there are now more reps than directors in the business. Especially in Cannes. What’s up with that?
One sad note. Because of e-mail no one knows each other anymore. Some of these geeks worked together and never met. This can’t be progress. Yeah I’m old but guess what–I know everybody. I get free drinks, free food and almost free sex. The geeks are winning but the war ain’t over. In Cannes people talk in person and that is a very good thing for creativity and business.
Worst Dressed….Mitch Kanner (still here from last year) looked like a banker at a country club
Best Dressed….Philip Fox-Mills Looked like ACDC
Best Hat….Ferg
Worst Hat….Ferg and R Greenberg even if he wasn’t there.
Best Party….Traktor I opened the door, took five Valium and left
New Trend….Lots of Russians. Where are Reagan and Austin Powers when we need them?
Old Trend….Joe being nice to me and staying at DU Cap to look like Ray Lofaro. Get over it, You ain’t.
Tom Mooney is president of New York-headquartered production house Moon (moonmedia.tv).
