Steffan Postaer at the Dubai Lynx Awards

Steffan Postaer, chairman and chief creative officer of Euro RSCG Chicago, is sending us daily updates as he judges the Dubai Lynx awards this week. Day Seven: Tuesday, March 17 And so I've come to the end of my duty as juror for the International Advertising Festival in Dubai. As I prepare for tonight's awards ceremony, followed by the long, long journey home (I leave at 2:30 a.m.!), I barely have time to compose this last post. Unfortunately, I cannot discuss any of the winners, as the show is still a few hours off. Unlike Cannes, where leaks about prizes are commonplace, here they manage to keep a tight lid on matters. Complete secrecy maintains a level of excitement for the contestants, and I don't want to spoil it. What I can say is that the finest work was found among press and posters. Why remains a mystery. Perhaps creatives are not beholden to local vendors for achieving their campaigns. As reported here (somewhat controversially), the television category was hit and miss, with more of the latter. As is the case in most such festivals, radio was the most challenging. In the end, numerous well-deserved medals were given in all categories. The ceremony should be a hit. Even if some of the work is not to international standards, Dubai Lynx is by far the most sophisticated regional show I have ever experienced. Run by many of the same people who do Cannes, the bigness and professionalism of this event is unsurpassed. While similar events in the States comprise bigger names and more celebrated campaigns, the Lynx is a weeklong event, replete with seminars, workshops and glitzy guest speakers. I myself hosted a seminar today and found it to be most rewarding. Hopefully, the young students felt the same way! Dubai is a modern city. Hell, most of it is younger than me! This includes the advertising industry. With everything growing and moving at such a furious pace, it's hard to discuss themes and motifs. What's the point? Chances are it will all be different next year!Day Six: Monday, March 16 In the Public Service category, there is a case for the Hariri Foundation, an entity that wants to address the imbalance of gender roles in Lebanese society. I write about it here not to comment on its creative quality (the judges outcome remain a secret) but because of the provocative subject matter. It should come as little surprise that in many parts of the MENA region, women are either ignored as viable members of society, or worse yet, subjugated by their male counterparts. To combat this unfortunate and archaic reality, the Hariri Foundation has created the "Women Empowerment Program" via an integrated campaign called "Khede Kasra." The way it worked involved a manipulation of the accent mark, or "Kasra," into a symbolic sign of female empowerment. Obviously, the Kasra can be seen (a mark on the alphabet) and heard (inflection of the language). To augment mass media, stickers of the accent mark were distributed nationwide, with the area's women encouraged to apply them to signage, thereby changing the inflection of messages from masculine to feminine—an empowering gesture. In the Middle East, one normally hears automated messages in the masculine tense. So, in Hariri's radio campaign, these blatantly sexist messages are called into question, empowering women to "push society [to be] heard." Television and Web materials were also employed. Whether this solved the problem or not isn't knowable, but it certainly seems a step in the right direction.Day Five: Sunday, March 15 It is not a question of whether scam ads exist (of course they do), but rather, what is the strategy for dealing with them? Sometimes called a "ghost," a scam ad is loosely defined as any creative work done for a bogus client or for a real client without their permission. In addition, it is a scam for the agency to underwrite all efforts on behalf of the creative. There are other definitions and distinctions. Suffice it to say, the grey area is huge. And with young creatives dying to become famous, the matter never ends. We are likely seeing a few ghosts in the Dubai Lynx, and from the usual suspects—a small shop that somehow has media budgets for full-color print or the toy company that hasn't made advertising in real life (ever) but is somehow represented. Suspicions aroused, we judges are instructed to tell a member of the festival staff. He or she then promptly makes inquiries to the suspected agency and client. Legitimate corroboration is required in order for the advertising to remain in the show. Competitors will always look for an edge. In this way, scam ads are a bit like steroids. Unavoidable. Even understandable. But unfair and against the rules. That these ads are always stunning in concept and craft makes it difficult for a creative director to eliminate. But kill them we must. Dubai Lynx is methodical in handling this universal problem and does a marvelous job of maintaining the show's integrity as well as its operation.Day Four: Saturday, March 14 Having seen all the work entered into Dubai Lynx at least once, let me try to identify some trends. First of all, as is often the case, the print and outdoor shows were the deepest in terms of quality. While one usually expects to find the highest highs in television, I think the printed mediums yielded Dubai's greatest treasures. Among these pearls, one is hard pressed to find a campaign far superior to the others. Many were special. Nor, more interestingly, is creative quality directly affected by local concerns over branding. I saw fine examples from big and small clients, both geographically and conceptually. Common themes: 1) From car manufacturers to public service, campaigns beseeching consumers not to talk on cell phones while driving run rampant. Driving deaths due to this are a huge problem in the UAE. Several campaigns quite cleverly showed mobile phones smashed on the sidewalk mimicking a car accident. 2) Judging from the preponderance of pest-control ads, there are clearly more than just expats invading the region. I saw too many "buggy" ads to count, some funny while others downright gross. I recall one poster that humorously highlighted the way cockroaches communicate using their antenna. Lovely. 3) Telling stories with pictures instead of words. So many ethnicities live and work in the region that committing to one language, or the limitation of a script, is understandably avoided. I can count the headline-and-long-copy ads I saw on one hand. Rather, illustration and photography carried the day, some of it brilliant. The quality of art direction, even for small clients, was high. As a copywriter, I miss the use of language. However, I recognize that our world has become a global community and that pictures are universal.Day Three: Friday, March 13 As might be expected, the Dubai Lynx is less frantic a pace than the festival at Cannes. Judging the proceedings has been painless by comparison. It also afforded me opportunities to get to know the personnel involved with putting on the show: members from the International Advertising Festivals and other vendors. Much like a stage crew on tour with a concert act, the festival promoters are in constant motion, from one creative festival to the next. These same Dubai "roadies" will be working feverishly in Cannes this summer. While the work can be time-consuming and relentless, I still found myself envying these young men and women. What a terrific job, right? You travel to terrific locations (Miami, Hawaii, New York, Dubai, Cannes, etc.) and are housed in those areas' premier locations. A gentleman I spoke with last night from Beam TV said his team did the Andy Awards last year, among others. He spoke fondly of the experience and was quite keen about the people he met there as well. I see what he means. Hobnobbing with some of our industry's leading lights would be a thrill for any twentysomething with aspirations to marketing or the creative arts. Still, this is not a job for slackers. One must be up well before the proceedings begin and remain long after they are over. Setting up the viewing rooms (and breaking them down), assembling technology, collating scores and countless other tasks is hard, hard work. The fellow I spoke with had to be an usher at one particular awards ceremony as well. Whatever it takes, the show must go on. And if Dubai Lynx is any indicator of the promoter's integrity, we are in very good hands. For the record, today we went through press and outdoor. A lot of work, and much of it was very good. More often than not, I found myself on the higher end of our scorecards. Day Two: Thursday, March 12 The judging for Dubai Lynx began with Television. I assume they chose TV as the opening category because it is usually a crowd pleaser at advertising award shows. The next category was Print & Posters. Mimicking the winning formula at Cannes, much of it was visual, relying on very little copy, if any. Highlights included a series on behalf of a powerful new washing machine. In each advert, an article of clothing was shown throwing up due to nausea from the spin cycle! Vomit is probably not a great cue for a washing machine, but the campaign made its point. I also liked a set of posters for Imax, featuring oversized theater confections and other distorted familiar objects. I'm learning that it's unfair to assume that a Western standard for creativity exists in the Middle East. After all, we've been doing it longer and have far less restrictions.Day One: Wednesday, March 11 Dubai is Las Vegas without the sin, at least the kind of sin that gets man into trouble with his creditors and wife. The other city I am reminded of is Shanghai, because of the dizzying amount of construction and newness of everything. Dubai is an eight-lane highway flanked by huge towers, both ridiculous and sublime, many of them unfinished. Cranes are everywhere. The cars crawl like ants in the desert. Foot traffic is almost non-existent. Hence, there are few sidewalks and even fewer pedestrians. No one appears preoccupied with the war in Iraq or the escalating violence in nearby countries. (Iran is only 125 miles away). On the contrary, Dubai is not afraid of demonstrating its wealth and the pursuit of it. The only impediment to capitalism is the encroaching recession, or as many prefer to call it, the "crisis." Perhaps using that word implies a quick remedy? I've spent two days embedded at our office here, meeting and presenting to the staff of Euro RSCG and many of their clients. I've also met with several journalists. Busy, busy, busy, and I haven't even seen an ad yet. Most of Dubai is comprised of expats (English, French and Indian), and so it is with the people at our agency. There is a transient quality about the culture, both in the agency and the emirate. Yet, all are tolerant and open-minded. My colleagues in Dubai are gracious and eager to share. All they want to talk about is digital. Recently, digital marketing was a non-topic and then, just like that, it became the only topic. Like Dubai, the digital world erupted, and now everyone is grappling with how to deal with it. I spent a great deal of time discussing how we unified our agency in Chicago, putting digital at the core. This is unfinished business for us, but it has only just begun for them. Tonight I meet all the other judges, of which I am the only North American. Strangely, I like being a minority. Dubai has many, and so I fit right in.

AdFreak

Steffan Postaer at the Dubai Lynx Awards

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