That starving child in Rwanda is now dead, but his next of kin are thrilled you won a gold lion.

I was talking with a creative director friend who shall remain nameless at an industry party the other day when a young creative bumbled up to him and said, "Great child abuse".

Now to be sure this creative director has been the subject of much speculation in ad circles regarding "deviant" activities in the past, but going all Catholic priest on us. I was shocked. Shocked I tell you. And appalled.

Of course I would instantly realize the young creative was in fact talking about an anti child abuse advertising campaign that my friend created which earned him a slue of awards. But the really disheartening thing was that he was praised for winning a ton of awards, not for effectively opening our eyes to an important issue.

Another friend, not content to have people come up to him to figuratively suck his dick shared his big Cannes win on Facebook. He even shared links to the pr buzz surrounding his win. No links to get more information about the cause though, rather his profit from it. It was the first major award he had ever won, so naturally he was cockahoop. The last I heard he got a better job at a better agency.

This has got me thinking about Public Service Advertising and how it appears to have become a profit motive, first and foremost for the creatives and agencies behind them. Especially now in the age of social media when pr has become the tool by which the agency and the creative can instantly and pervasively make a name for themselves. A little ironic too, since social media has also made it possible for more altruistic initiatives to become reality.

Recently the Cannnes Advertising Festival created a new category, the "Grand Prix for Good". Essentially this is an award for the best public service idea of the year and in large part it's a nod to this new era of doing good. Personally, in the interest of balance, I'd also like to see a "Grand Prix for Sin", a reward for creatively facilitating those habits that are now deemed socially unacceptable, i.e. tobacco advertising. But I digress.

The problem with the "Grand Prix for Good" is that it just ramps up the profit motive ten-fold. It's crack, heroin, pcp and weed all rolled into one.

But imagine if no credit was given to either the agency or creatives involved in the winning idea. Imagine if there wasn't even a piece of metal to hand out. Imagine all the people living life in peace.....sorry, I got carried away.

Seriously tough, how wonderful would it have been if the Cannes organizers had let the winning idea literally stand for nothing but the selfless act of doing good.

Indeed maybe the whole PSA category in general should be renamed the "Selfless" category, i.e. take the advertising part out of the PSA altogether. And in that spirit, no credit should be given to anyone.

In fact, let's go a little further. Any idea that has been credited in the public sphere over the course of the year should be deemed ineligible to enter. Let this be the one area in advertising where the cause is all that matters. What the!!!!!

There are actually examples of this kind of anonymous approach already. Robin of Shoreditch is an interesting project in England, where a collective of advertising agency creatives create ideas for big brands and try to sell them behind the backs of their agencies.


All the money raised goes to charities of their choosing. The first one was for Haiti relief. No credit is ever given to the creatives involved, although the reasons given are more to do with conflicts of interests. And not wanting their current employers to find out they're secretly working against them on the side.

Now I, the shameless self-promoter, totally understand that creatives need credit for their creations. And prize-winning incentives for their egos. Let's be honest, trying to change the world for the better isn't really reward enough.

So perhaps the compromise is that a  financial bonus is handed out to the anonymous  winners of the "Selfless" category. A beautiful irony, I know. But at least this way creatives get to wallow in their anonymity with some extra moula to spend on whiskey and blow.

Years ago a I was looking through junior portfolios with a friend, and no we weren't trolling for ideas. Those usually came from the interns anyway. One particular portfolio was bursting with a series of very compelling PSA's.

My friend dismissed his book on the grounds that "PSA's were too easy", without actually taking the time to become interested in the messages. Or treat them as something much bigger than just another ad.