YouTube launches 48-hour ad contest with Cannes Young Lions April 30, 2009
Posted by Farrukh Naeem at www.copywriterjournalist.com in : Advertising , 1 comment so farYouTube and Cannes Lions are offering young creative people under 28 a chance to win a trip to this year’s festival, and participate in the Cannes Young Lions film competition.
YouTube will release the contest brief on 15 May to make a 60 second ad for a prominent charity and post it on the contest’s dedicated channel on YouTube at:
www.youtube.com/canneslions
You’ll have 48 hours to make a video and submit it to the YouTube contest channel. Then comes the more challenging part…
You’ll have two more weeks after submittiung your video to make it go viral. Blog it. Tweet it. Spread it through Facebook. Make it go round the world.
At the end of the two weeks, judges will pick two winners who’ll get an ALL EXPENSES PAID trip to Cannes.
As any young creative who’s passionate enough about advertising knows, the chance to visit Cannes, see the world’s best ads, say Hi to the hottest CDs in business, comes rarely for cubs who’re just starting out.
Making a YouTube video, that too for a charity, I think is really a cool way to win a ticket to the event, specially if you’re got the knack for video. You’ve got nothing to lose. And maybe this is the shot in the arm you need to make that YouTube video you’ve always wanted.
It’s time to get your mobile cameras, handycams, anycams rollin’…
Dubai Lynx strips FP7 off the Agency of the Year Award April 1, 2009
Posted by Farrukh Naeem at www.copywriterjournalist.com in : Advertising , add a commentDubai Lynx organisers have withdrawn Agency of the Year Award from FP7 Doha. The trophy will not be awarded this year. And you were wondering why the copywriter in uae hasn’t been so eager to post lists and pictures of Dubai Lynx winners this year. It just didn’t feel right. Now you know – there was something rotten in the desperate quest for awards this season.
When a creative idea looks very similar to another one that has previously been awarded, creatives can always plead innocent on grounds that creative minds could think alike for similar briefs. But online and offline, the accusations and investigations and exposes about FP7 Doha’s award-winning ads are mounting. We’re talking depiction of Jesus, showing a pig in a region where it’s ‘haraam’, running ads without the client’s permission, ads showing product lines which do not exist in the region… and more.
“Investigations after this year’s award show have revealed numerous examples of work from FP7 Doha that did not meet the Dubai Lynx entry criteria and subsequently these 18 submissions and the associated seven awards have been withdrawn,” stated an official statement by the Dubai Lynx organisers today.
Awards that have been withdrawn include 1 Gold Print campaign, 1 Gold TV/Cinema campaign, 3 Silver Print campaigns, 1 Silver Outdoor campaign and 1 Bronze TV/Cinema campaign. Ten shortlisted pieces in the Print and Outdoor sections have also been disqualified.
“The Dubai Lynx Awards exist to celebrate and raise the creative bar of genuine work of the region. Activities like this show a disregard not only for the Awards but more importantly for the juries who work so hard judging the event.”
Philip Thomas, Dubai Lynx CEO
I was one of the first bloggers to be accredited by the organisers of Dubai Lynx. In the very first year of its launch, this blog arguably had the most extensive coverage by a local blogger with agencies from all over the world visiting to view the winners pictures and entries. The second year was great too.
But this year, the third year of the Lynx, it just didn’t feel right. I salute and respect all the creatives who put in their blood, sweat and tears to do great work for their clients and target audience, and all due respect for the organisers and jury who spent countless hours making this event happen. But the entries that have now spoilt all that honest effort that went into the event and given us all creatives a bad name – that’s what is NOT cool at all.
Interestingly, in all the years, this must have been the most reported and blogged about Lynx event. I met friends from the traditional media – Communicate, Campaign, GMR, Media Week as well as so many online friends from AdNationMe to AdBlog Arabia to AdBasha and Jazarah. Anubis blog had a field day this time, as he’s been exposing copy-cat ads in the region for quite some time now. And most of them are not going to let this news pass:
1. Campaign ME blogs about the investigation
2. Anubis visualises the Lions’ reaction to the fiasco
3. And this expose from Anubis really takes the cake – see it to believe it!
4. AdNationMe on Samsung slamming the scam ads
5. AdBasha blogs about the art work of an American artists that brought about an easy victory
It all started with a blogger it’s being said – what I’m curious about is why all these publications are shy about crediting the scoop-blogger with a link at least. But we can be sure that this will be one of the most discussed awards in the region this year – too bad for those who’re in the news for the wrong reasons.
With all this around me, I really hope that tough measures are taken to eliminate such practices from awards in the future. I hope that creatives start being evaluated on the basis of how much their work worked for clients and their business. Not just how many scam and ghost ads they made to win awards at any cost. I hope people whose copy-paste tactics bring a bad name to the industry and us creatives are named and shamed publicly.
I wouldn’t say that an entire agency or network could be blamed for what has happened but rather individuals, and I believe FP7 is conducting its own investigation and has promised to take tough action.
To save you the heart-ache of seeing undeserving people lifting an industry award, again and again and again, I will NOT be posting ANY winners lists, pictures or entries this time – as you must have figured out by now anyway. Of course, these are things you can now get anyway from www.dubailynx.com
However, if you are patient enough, I am planning to share what I learnt at the workshops and seminars that the organisers too great pains to put together for us ad people at Dubai Lynx this year. Maybe even video too.
In the meantime, a previous posts of mine that you might want to revisit is:
Plagiarism in advertising – how fake and scam ads are destroying originality
