When Lambs Eat Lions

Year after year, Cannes Lions changed from an elite advertising festival to an expensive touristic agency partially due to the growing lack of real content (weak presentations, dull seminars, boring-to-hell-and-back case studies etc,) and the strange decisions that the jury take for a while now. I'm amazed how this bastion of creativity recognition surely and steadily transforms itself into a dull presentation-based festival, dull as old marketing, dull as sales, dull as everything that stinks of conventionality. The other European festivals follow the trend and promote their destinations better than their purposes. "Baywatch Cannes" could be an appropriate title for an incoming soap opera about young branded creatives trying to fight their way up in the marketing ranks year after year, promoting mediocre ideas under splashy presentations. Shame or no shame, another festival is lost under the system's oblivion.

This year I was intrigued by the OOH GP for THEZIMBABWEAN NEWSPAPER. First, I question the originality of the idea. following this link (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0366777/), you'll find a great movie, worthy to be watched at least until the characters create an wallpaper of old quids; if not similar, very inspirational to the TBWA/HUNT/LASCARIS team.
Secondly, I'm done trusting political campaigns coming from neighboring countries where the freedom climate permits the message to "walk" untangled without fearing a certain and painful retribution.

I do not questions the good intentions of the guys that created the campaign; I just question if this prize will not unleash a NEXT GEN ghost campaigns wave, prize-oriented and well sustained in this direction, a sure method for finally getting the top cherry out of Cannes and other festivals. Because I myself could create a campaign about Moldova (formerly part of Romania, now a distinct communist neighboring country), publishing it in Romania, developing everything in Romania, using a multinational experienced agency as background then promote it straight-to-Cannes for a big fat prize. Sounds like ghost? For me it does.