Sunday June 19

Finally arrived in Nice after a harrowing flight that basically took us two days. Paid $140 to a licensed bandit in a taxi for a 25-minute drive from Nice to Cannes. Registered for the conference. Quite the security set-up just to get into the building: All bags were searched and you had to go through a metal detector! Grabbed a quick bite and then off to bed. Slept for 12 hours.

Monday June 20

Late afternoon went to Morrison’s Pub for a get-together of the Canadians at the festival. It was a bit disappointing that out of about 150 Canadian delegates roughly 20 showed up. Met up with Keith Stride, CD with Watermark Advertising in Calgary. We discussed whether the ‘sell’ was being forgotten in a lot of advertising. We agreed that often the creative idea takes precedence over the fact that advertising is supposed to move products or services.

Tuesday June 21

Attended the awards presentation for the Lions Direct and Lions Media. Canada had a good showing with Diesel winning a gold for its campaign for Guru Bicycles and both Cossette and The Media Company winning media Lions.

Wednesday, June 22

Took part of the day to visit Monte Carlo. I have never seen so many yachts. I figure most must be owned by the taxi drivers.

Later checked out the cyber Lion awards. It was neat to watch the winners from Brazil on stage in Brazilian T-shirts waving their flags. They certainly let everyone know that they are a force to be reckoned with.

Their work is totally creative driven (with

not a lot of strategic thinking). While that might [fly] in their market, I do not think it would work in

North America.

Thursday, June 23

Visited the press and outdoor award

ceremony. A lot of shock-value material, some

of which I thought fit the subject while

others I found tasteless. Maybe it’s my

‘brand’ outlook, but if I were with some of those companies, I would be asking what

image I was presenting.

That evening, went to the Globe and Mail reception. It was a very good turnout with many of Canada’s advertising stars including Frank Palmer, Paul Lavoie and Alan Gee.

Friday, June 24

This was the start of my real vacation, touring Provence for another 10 days.

Reflections: Cannes is very much a creative festival with not a lot of value for clients. Then, there are the parties….

I would like to see

many more entries from Canada [because]

we take a back seat to no one in terms of creative and effective advertising. I encourage Canadian agencies to submit more entries.

We have the quality; we need more

quantity. And agencies send your young creative teams to Cannes – it will definitely pay dividends.