You may have heard by now, via Tribble, AdAge or the grapevine, BBDO won a few things over in Cannes. One of those awards, says Big Spaceship CEO Mike Lebowitz, should have gone to his agency.
BS put together a little Web site for HBO Voyeur that’s setting a standard in the digital approach. But since BS was commissioned by BBDO (which has laid claim to the “idea”), the Cannes judges didn’t recognize BS’s efforts.
Not the first time this kind of thing has happened, so why the hubbub? Lebowitz is calling for a change to the antiquated system.
“This isn’t about digital agencies getting credit,” and “it’s not just about BBDO and Big Spaceship,” said Mr. Lebowitz. “It’s a larger problem, and it’s about shifting the tenor of the industry overall.”
He had a few choice words about BBDO’s participation in the debaucle, noting that they’re not “completely innocent in this…I tremendously admire what BBDO did … they shot an incredible piece of film. But to qualify us as a production company is to sell short the tremendous amount of insight it takes to take a traditional piece of media and put it out into the world in a natively digital way. Certainly, a lot of people came up to me and said ‘sorry’ when I was in Cannes.”
We’re sorry, too. And with no further adieu, here’s our contribution to fixing the issue.
Should Cannes Get…Canned?
( surveys)
Check out Parker’s take on a similar Cannes screw up.