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Just An Online Minute... Cannes In A Kabin, Feel The Wrath!

2010 Wrath Of Cannes, Kabin, New York
June 23, 2010

In May, when Mother Nature finally cranked up the heat, I ran into The Big Boss (Ken Fadner) in the elevator. He predicted I would make some sort of comment about it being too hot despite my then happy embrace of the change from rainy crud to sizzling sun. I swore after that elevator ride that I would try to go at least month without grousing about the heat in this column. That ends today. You know what else ends today? Me scribbling names and "tall dude with sweaty pits" notes in a notebook, because sometimes that notebook gets lost -- as it did last night, while I was covering Wrath of Cannes.

Ah yes, August in June, how are you? At 9 a.m. this morning it was 90 degrees with what felt like 100% humidity. I'm pretty sure I swam from my bed to the shower and into work. And now? The shower is but a misty deodorant-flavored memory. The heat played nice last night, however, and the good people at Kabin had the A/C cranked for the third annual Wrath of Cannes, an awards shindig for those lucky enough to be stuck in NYC while the rest of the ad world runs around France. The A/C was the first thing I noticed when I walked in. That and a guy who looked like Santa, and he must have thought I looked like an ice cream cone, judging from whatever come-hither look he was giving me. I thought I might have gotten the night wrong due to the lack of "hey dingdong, it's in the back!" signage, but I'm a smart girl, I don't stop at Santa guy, I look around. I found the party in the back.

The Wrath of Cannes crew occupied a private room that probably had an occupancy limit of 30, which is fine by me, no need for accidental inappropriate touching every night! I sat down to screw in my flash and chatted up Marc Lefton, founder of Adholes and Partner/Creative at Half Fiction, a marketing agency that builds "movements for brands and ideas." Hopefully not embarrassing movements.

The room started filling up with hot (temperature) bodies. Skin carriers like Andrew Zellinger, Interactive Art Director; Jenean Chapman of Buddy Media; almost married Mathew Van Hoven, Communications Director at Skinny NYC; Matt Caldecutt, who is enjoying the hard but rewarding work at his newish role with DKC Public Relations and Integrated Marketing (he also alerted me to Vic's Bagel Bar, where you can create your own special cream cheese!); and the Woods Witt Dealy & Sons partners Harry Woods, Phyllis Dealy, and Gill Witt.

A friendly face that I haven't seen in ages, Belle Lenz of MPG, appeared! Belle had two MPGers in tow: Amanda Crowley and Caitlin Curran. They were all double-fisting, anticipating a bottleneck at the bar. We got to talking about Coney Island, once the location for Wrath of Cannes, a topic that turned into hot-dog-eating contests. I had just learned at the Broadway Walk of Stars event that hot dog contestants lobby for entourages, and Caitlin perked up at this tidbit. So if anyone is looking for a bun holder, Caitlin's your girl!

Before they became famous for winning the Grand Coney, I met SVA students Vinny Garbellano and Mark Forsman. They won for their work for Jack Daniels No. 7 "Walk the Line." They were hanging with future second-place winners Hez Kim and Jang Cho, who won a Powermat for their work on Comedy Central's "Lift This Up," which is friggin hysterical.

Congratulations to Vinny and Mark, who are no doubt still staring at their Grand Coney, a bronze figure with its head up its heineyhole. They're probably also trying to figure out how to share the iPad that was also part of their grand prize. I can settle that dispute easily -- just give it to me OR to their teacher at SVA, Frank Anselmo. According to Harry Woods, Frank Anselmo is doing something right because he sees a lot of Frank's students going straight to the top of the heap in young talent.

Before the PBR for 2 bucks fur grew over my brain, I also met George Logothetis, Creative Director and Copywriter, as well as Kristina Witt, Gill Witt's lady. I also kept backing into Kim Merritt, writer over at WWD&S, who was balancing photog and beer duties. I can't wait to see her shots -- she had a monster lens and never popped her flash.

Thanks to Woods Witt Dealy & Sons for putting together a laid-back event. Sure, it's no south of France, but I mean, really, who wants to be in France stalking Mark Zuckerberg at 4 a.m. anyway?

Photos from last night are up on Flickr!

Send invitations to kelly@mediapost.com!

You can view the winners on YouTube

1 comment about "Just An Online Minute... Cannes In A Kabin, Feel The Wrath!".
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  1. Manly Artdirector from Freelance, June 27, 2010 at 3:19 p.m.

    there were only 5 entrants for this. the judges decided to award only 2 of 3.
    here are the other entries. you decide if they should've been cut.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1iaKTNA9fE
    http://vimeo.com/8709184
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43_JAP6MY1E

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