Commentary

No, Cannes Should Not Be Canned

With Cannes Lions a week away, the usual debate surrounding the merits of the festival are making their annual appearances. The latest in the annual salvo of discontent comes from Avi Dan who, writing for Forbes, asks: "Should Cannes Be Canned?" Cute, Avi. Cute. It's the usual tripe about how the awards focus too much on creativity and not enough on results and how Cannes "diverts attention from servicing the clients and building strong brands and, instead, much too often it’s about self-importance." Well, of course it's about self-importance, Avi. Where else do you think the industry's creative babies are going to to get a pat on the back and a new binky to place in their crib? Certainly not from their clients who make it their business to dumb down and kill every great idea with CYA committee-led approval processes. As long as awards are offered and as long as agencies can afford the entry fees and as long as creative egos need to be stroked, Cannes ain't getting canned.

This past weekend, Arnold Worldwide won an Emmy for its work on the introduction to the Boston Bruins' "Behind the B" show at the Boston/New England chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences on Saturday, June 7. Produced by Travis Robertson and Greg Almeida of Arnold Worldwide and the Bruins Digital Entertainment Network, the “Behind the B” show intro was nominated in the Musical Composition and Arrangement category. The intro was created using still photography and then converted to a grainy/gray scale in order to create a raw look. Each photograph was treated with a combination of 2D, 3D, and After Effects Parallax to create moments that appeared to be frozen in time. 

Agencies go to Cannes all the time. It's not news. But one agency, 123w.ca, is really, really excited to be going. And well they should be. The agency was founded and launched just one year ago in a suburban Vancouver garage. They then moved to office space in an industrial laundry facility, seemingly for the low rent. They've done work for 7-Eleven and Mercedes and have no problem tapping talent to help create the agency's gloriously kooky Web site. The agency is out with a video it will use to introduce itself during an appearance it will make in Cannes next week. 

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