By Georgia Horrocks

Canned in. Cannes-d out. 

I’ve spent the day canned in at the studio, Cannes-ing away. (See what I did there?) 

As I’m pretty certain I haven’t nabbed a Future Lions, I think now might be a good time to roll out some pearls from Sir John Hegarty who I was lucky enough to be in the presence of recently. Whilst I’d love to quote him, my moleskin’s at home and I’m sure he wouldn’t be thrilled if my turn of phrase was mistaken for his on a Google search.

But…. the jist of it was that awards really don’t mean a thing. An advertising creative’s only measure of success is the amount of product they manage to shift. 

So although BBH’s infamous Zag campaign may have picked up a fair few trophies, the real success was the fact that Levi’s physically couldn’t keep up with demand. 

They were forced to pull the ad. 

If there’s a lesson to be learnt here – and I’m hoping for my SCAB’s sake that there is – it might be to keep your goals close to the ground. Shiny things only belong in display cabinets.