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.
