French, Droga Speak at Clios

MIAMI Blood sports and sex were the lead topics of conversation at the 44th annual Clio Awards this morning, as lifetime-achievement award winner Neil French likened advertising to bullfighting and Publicis Groupe worldwide creative director David Droga, the print jury chairman, spoke about his controversial Club 18-30 and Coco de Mer ads.Neil French follows David Abbott and Tony Kaye as the recipient of the Clio Lifetime Achievement Award Laureate for 2003. Before a coup de champagne celebrating his work, he showed a short video in which he compared nearly every component of advertising to bullfighting, a sport in which he briefly took part before becoming an ad man.French began his career at Ogilvy & Mather in Singapore in 1983 as a creative director, became vice chairman and group creative director of the Ball Partnership and returned to Ogilvy in 1992, becoming regional creative director for its Asian offices. In 1997, he was named worldwide creative director.He alluded to little of that during his presentation, however, and instead, using footage of bullfights that he had shot, showed how good matadors have the same three qualities advertising creatives need to survive: bravery, creativity and confidence. He compared the bull to the brief, which must be killed-or executed well. He noted that if a bullfighter gets it wrong, he dies."What happens to you when you get it wrong?" French asked the 100-plus Clio festivalgoers in attendance. "Nobody dies. It's only bloody advertising."French will receive his award tonight, at the print, innovative media and Internet award ceremony.Also today, in a talk titled "The Ingredients of Great Print," Droga said print, or press, as it is called in London, was the "purest" medium. "You don't have any excuses," Droga said. "You can't blame the director."It was the jury's function to reward originality, Droga said, and whatever wins gold this year should be better than what won last year. Though he was unable to discuss specifics about this year's winners, which will be revealed tonight, he used examples from his previous job as ecd at Saatchi & Saatchi to illustrate his points. One ad, for the British army, used scratch-off components to engage the reader. Another ad, for a multiple sclerosis organization, used an actual page from a newspaper and scrambled the text to show what having MS is like. This shows how advertising can be integrated into its medium, according to Droga.Droga said there should not be templates for print ads. One example he gave was ads he created for Club 18-30, which showed people in very suggestive sexual poses who were actually doing very innocent things."You have to be honest about who you're talking to," Droga said, noting that anyone who knew what Club 18-30 was about would not be surprised by the ad.Another example he used was an edgy campaign for erotica chain Coco de Mer. The ads show close-ups of faces of people who are climaxing. While this may be shocking to some, he said, it was all part of the company's philosophy that sex should be "real and not glamorous."Finally, the most important aspect of creating an ad, Droga explained, is understanding the mind-set of a consumer and creating a relevant message. "A lot of stuff that didn't make the shortlist was because beyond its instant cleverness, it's disposable," he said.

Brand Marketing

French, Droga Speak at Clios

Mae Anderson

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Mae Anderson