this was posted by "anonymous" here: http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/2009/08/magician-21st-philippine-advertising.html

The magician was imagining a full house because as a performer... that was what he wanted to see. *Every* performer longs to live in the limelight, to be acknowledged and cheered on by a crowd. The sad reality for him was, the 'standing ovation' was nothing more than an illusion, a thing he conjured up in his own mind OR it could have been a memory of his former glory days. Hence, with a flicker of the light, the hurrahs are replaced with yawns, from a less than ecstatic audience.

In this way, it is creatively intellectual, (as opposed to "just being creative for creativity's sake"), for its irony, for he, who gives illusions to please others, creates an illusion for himself, to keep his spirit alive. You may see this in Psychology books filed under the subject: "Coping Mechanism." You see, performers die a little inside every time they realize that nobody gives a crap about their "art". However, he also knows that the show must go on, and that he must prop up that smile because that is what 'professionals' do. How can you not get that?

no, i did not get that at all that the magician was imagining a full house. how did you even get all that from the tv ad? where is it in the ad that all that you said is shown or said? you must be writer of the ad to know all that.

that says to me that aside from the weakness in the copy-writing of this ad, there is a bigger weakness in the directorial treatment of the ad.

the director failed to execute that idea from a visual and movement standpoint. the directorial treatment failed in establishing the visuals being shown come from different perspectives. in the ad, it was just a flash of light that was supposed to signal the change in perspective. that is a very weak visual treatment.

the copy also did not help. it hardly had copy in the first place but the the change in perspective visual was shown just before the copy said "witness this death defying act". the story is about a magician making a woman disappear, it will confuse the audience- what is supposed to disappear, the woman or the audience.

because of the very bad directorial treatment, i don't think anyone will get there is a change in perspective but will rather stick to the story in the ad.

one of the thing i remember about effective ads is this - "what you see is what you get". in this ad that is what i got because that is what i saw and it was in fact what was given visually and copy-wise.

more on this later. it is a WAWAM!

will scam ads win big again in 2009 Philippine Advertising Congress?

‘Goodvertising’ top Subic ad talk
By Robert Gonzaga
Philippine
Daily InquirerFirst
Posted 04:51:00 11/20/2009

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — By doing good, the advertising industry could thrive in the future, a top advertising executive in South Africa told delegates to the 21st Philippine Advertising Congress (PAC) here Thursday.

Mike Schalit, chief creative officer of Network BBDO South Africa, said the advertising industry should “turn away from cute, clever advertising designed to win awards but don’t do any good in the world.”

“What about the real problems of the world? Like homelessness. What can we do about that?” he asked.

read in full here: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20091120-237322/Goodvertising-top-Subic-ad-talk

this one caught my attention: “turn away from cute, clever advertising designed to win awards but don’t do any good in the world.”

cute and clever advertising are great, it’s the last part that i have problems with – “designed to win awards”. we got reminded of the “scam ads” that populate the philippine ad con awards that we had written about in 2008.

no doubt, scam ads will once again win in the adcon. it is almost like an industry within an industry, a mafia like operation that ad agencies, creatives specifically run. all the effort just to win awards.

these efforts that creatives run in mafia like fashion does not do anything good to the ad industry, all it does is enhance the egoes of individual creatives. it does not even build business for clients.

creatives do not do the same kind of quality work on a daily basis that they present to legitimate clients. this kind of award winning work are just too difficult to do, to time consuming, very risky for them and offers no ego reward for them. it will be a miracle if we see these types in print or in tv for 10% of the work.

there are 3 parts to what Mike Schalit said, the third part is the point i am making:

“turn away from cute, clever advertising designed to win awards but don’t do any good in the world.”

posted here: http://wawam.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/will-scam-ads-win-big-again-in-2009-philippine-advertising-congress-2/

Philippine Ad Congress' Araw Awards winning scam ads - "araw ng parangal" or "araw ng lokohan"?

everybody in the philippine ad industry knows this. it's the worst kept secret in the ad industry - the scam ads that win the Araw Awards ("araw" means day or sun, depending on the usage. in this award, it's meant to mean the sun) in the ad competition during the Philippine Ad Congress. these scam ads do win the awards. on the day the scam ads win, is it an "araw ng parangal" (day of tribute) or is it an "araw ng lokohan" (day of scams)?

scam ads are one-shot ads where ad agencies develop creatives for the sole purpose of making the most creative ads to win awards. ad agencies usually look for very small clients, even those who normally can't afford advertising and have not had an ad ever, and convince them to use their business in the ad. they air/publish the ad only once just to comply with the award criteria.

scam ads are not meant to build the business of the client as what advertising ought to do. in the first place, scam ads can never do that - it's aired/printed only once and they're too creative that only creative directors can understand and appreciate the ads. creative directors are usually the judges of ad competitions. scam ads are not tools for building business, they're tools to boost the egos of creative directors who want to win awards.

everybody knows about scam ads. most complain about them, even despise them. and yet over many years of ad competition awards - they continue to be there. it's really easy to stop the scam ads, just ad another criteria to entries for the awards that has the effect of banning them. but the reality is the philippine advertising industry has not done anything to get rid of it even though many have said they don't like it.

ad competitions are set up not only to give tribute to the best work, but more importantly it's to inspire and push creativity to higher levels to improve the over-all quality of the whole industry. the idea is to be able to help uplift the creativity of the ads we see on a daily basis in media.

scam ads prevent that from happening because the creatives know the work they do on a daily basis for their regular clients will never win awards, why bother to improve them? they would rather do their best work for scam ads which has a higher chance of winning awards for them. and scam ads are just too few to make an impact on the industry.

when will this stop? that's probably a question will never be able to answer.

your suggestions on how to stop scam ads? are they necessary? what are the benefits?

dm9 jayme/syfu - the duct tape ad that had something stuck to it

this is an article that appeared in adobo magazine (http://www.adobomagazine.com/global/module.php?LM=news.level1&id=1217825194648) and it is next here in WAWAM!


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DUCT TAPE AND A GOOD CAUSE WIN THE PHILIPPINES' FIRST MEDIA LION

DM9 JaymeSyfu, a Manila ad agency affiliated with the DDB network of communications companies, was awarded a Bronze Lion in the Cannes International Advertising Festival in France last June 17. It won the prestigious metal in the festival’s Media Lions competition for its “Duct Tape” posters for women’s rights group Gabriela. Aimed at friends, families and neighbors of abused women, the Gabriela posters drew the judges’ attention because of its ingenious use of duct tape. Not only did it hold the posters in place, it dramatized the physical and psychological oppression of domestic violence. At the bottom of each ad, the text appealed to readers to help release these women from bondage.

Because of this, DM9 JaymeSyfu was awarded the Bronze Media Lion, which is given to “media efforts that generate access to consumers in ways that are simultaneously innovative, engaging, encompassing and effective.” It was one of 2,000 entries from 76 countries that vied for 31 bronzes, 17 silvers, five golds and one Grand Prix in the Media Lions. The agency’s Chief Creative Officer Merlee Jayme attended the award ceremony in Cannes. Initially, her agency had four finalists in the running, and when the first three failed, she had written their performance as a total loss. “So when I attended the awards ceremony, I was pleasantly surprised. A first for our country! This is certainly something that our agency has been dreaming of!” It is quite an achievement for the creative hot shop, which opened its doors less than three years ago. Led by Jayme and Managing Director Alex Syfu, it services clients like SMART, Schering-Plough, the Department of Tourism, Max’s, Discovery Suites and Greenfield Development. From Manila, Syfu said, “It’s a blessing.

When we heard that we got into the finals, we were ecstatic, and winning just doubled our joy. It’s a very Pinoy campaign. It’s a victory, not just for us and our client Gabriela, but for all Pinoys who are working to eradicate spousal abuse.” It is the country’s first Media Lion.

There were many attempts, and twice, two local ads managed to get on the judges’ shortlists. One was the simple but timely late-night campaign for Extra Joss by creative agency TBWA\Santiago Mangada Puno, and the other was a Rejoice music video initiated by media agency Starcom. A panel of the world’s most powerful and influential media experts judges the Media Lions.

This year’s competition was presided over by Dominic Proctor, worldwide CEO of MindShare. The Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival is the most prestigious international annual advertising awards as well as the world’s largest global conference for creativity in communications. Now on its 55th year, more than 10,000 registered delegates from 85 countries and around 12,000 total visitors from the advertising and allied industries (including 30 Philippine delegates) attended to celebrate the best of creativity in all major media, discuss industry issues and network with one another.

Along with the ads that vied for the Media Lions, over 28,000 pieces of work from 85 countries are competing in the Palais des Festivals in Cannes. Ten juries, composed of top international creatives, judge all the entries in Cannes and award the coveted Lion trophy to the best Film, Print, Outdoor, Design, Interactive, Radio, Sales Promotion, Media, Direct Marketing, Integrated and Titanium which recognize ground-breaking creative work.

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read previous posts on this winning ad and dm9 jayme/syfu here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/DM9Jayme%2FSyfu

dm9 jayme/syfu's garbriela ad - a big misunderstanding, a new strategy at winning awards, copyright infringement

the ads are practically indentical and the implementation is exactly the same. so, i'm thinking there could just be a huge misunderstanding about dm9 jayme/syfu's gabriela ad.

they are actually not calling it as a print ad, they call it "ambient" advertising which is the use of unexpected and unorthodox medium for advertising, just like the use of electric posts and trees. it goes over and beyond non-traditional. and that does it, the gabriela effort is exactly what the amnesty international effort is.

so it's very possible the gabriela ad is a pool-out of the amnesty international ad.

question is - did saatchi & saatchi poland and amnestry internationl on one hand and dm9 jayme/sayfu and gabriela on the other talk about it and agreed to its duplication? amnesty international and gabriela are about the same kind of organization and it's most likely gabriela is affiliated with amnestry international (this is yet to be confirmed).

i am assuming they did. because if they did not, then dm9 jayme/sayfu has just exposed themselves to a copyright infringement lawsuit from saatchi & saatchi poland if not from amnesty international. it's clearly an exact copy, there is no way to go around an intelectual property rights violation. for our peace of mind, let's assume somewhere in the filing cabinets of dm9 jayme/sayfu is a written letter of consent for them to use exactly the same creative concept and execution.

which leads us to the last third of the title of this post. the gabriela ad won a bronze award in the 2008 cannes lions awards and that leads me to conclude "originality" is not a criteria in that ad competition. you can actually submit an ad for competition that is a copy of another.

i think we have found another strategy for winning ad competitions, specially in the cannes lions or maybe even other international ad competitions!

it's a simple strategy : to win an international award, copy the work of another award winning ad of years ago! a very simple and most likely a very effective strategy. the success rate must be phenomenal.

but before the creative types and ad agency people reading this blog call a special meeting of their exe com to enshrine this as an ad agency core strategy, please do not foget : it exposes your agency to a copyright infringement lawsuit and it violates intellectual property rights. you can lose huge amounts of $, yes US$ if you lose the case in a court of law.

who ever said life in an ad agency is simple?

JWT Manila wins radio award in Asia Adfest

JWT Manila big winner in radio category of Adfest
By Angel V. GuerreroPhilippine Daily InquirerFirst Posted 03:33:00 04/04/2008

After scoring the Philippines' first Cannes Gold in radio for the Lotus Spa radio commercial last year, JWT Manila, headed by Dave Ferrer, landed one gold, two silvers and a bronze for the same radio campaign at the recent Asia Pacific Advertising Festival, held in Pattaya in Thailand. The agency emerged as the biggest winner in the radio category by winning the most medals against all the Asian contenders. DDB DM9 Jayme Syfu also won a bronze for the Vandol "Siren" radio spot and a finalist for the Drixine "Beatles" radio commercial. BBDO Guerrero Ortega was a finalist for the Childhope public service radio spot called "Good Kids." The best of show for radio went to Y&R Malaysia for the Colgate "Brush" radio execution.

Another winner with two silvers and a bronze in the print category was a print campaign for Soroptimist Philippines, a movement protecting women. The ads were produced by Leigh Reyes and Trish Uy of Y&R Philippines. The Soroptimist "Bullet" ad shows a timeline of the various types of guns invented by men and at the end, a visual of a woman who invented the bulletproof vest. The ad also captured a Gold Clio award in the US last year.

TBWA\SantiagoMangadaPuno won a bronze in print and was a finalist in Poster for the Philippine Star "Palawan" ad. In the direct marketing section, Lowe Philippines won a bronze for the Kuff 'n Kollar "Collar/Belt" piece while Bayantel's "Downloading" billboard by BBDO was a finalist.

Team Philippines for the Young Lotus competition, sponsored by Adboard and represented by the under-30 duo of Tina Araneta and Aidon Panlaqui from Lowe Philippines emerged as one of the top three finalists in the young creatives award that had talents from 13 cities competing. The team from Hakuhodo Tokyo won the top prize for their film "Serial Killer." There were 34 delegates from Manila.

Filipino director Marla Ancheta of Industria productions was selected to be among the Fabulous 4+ directors who showcased their films at the festival.

The inaugural Agency of the Year award, given to the agency that won the most awards, went to Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore. The Network of the Year was JWT and the Advertiser of the Year was Adidas.

The Adfest invited leading creative directors from all over the world and the region to judge the 5,148 entries from more than 33 cities. On jury duty from the Philippines were David Guerrero as radio jury president, Leigh Reyes in the Press & Poster Lotus jury and Joel Limchoc in the Print Craft and Design Lotus jury.


http://business.inquirer.net/money/features/view/20080404-128282/JWT-Manila-big-winner-in-radio-category-of-Adfest

scam ads in Asia Adfest

Scam ad scandals mar Asia Adfest

By Roger PePhilippine Daily InquirerFirst Posted 03:32:00 04/04/2008

How far will advertising agencies go to win an award? In one category of the Asia Adfest, the competition was said to "have drawn the most scam entrants and judges said it was hard to distinguish real from genuine ads."

We stumbled into two articles online written by judges, on the recently concluded Asia Adfest in Pattaya:

"I don't think any of the work will win a gold at any major global award shows," said Tom Davidson, executive creative director of Wieden & Kennedy in London, who led the TV jury this year at AdFest. His opinion was echoed by many at the festival. No Best of Show awards were given in two major categories: TV and outdoor media.

"I was not impressed by the TV and print work and I have never seen as many scam ads as I've seen here," Mr. Davidson said in Advertising Age, referring to the practice of entering ads that are often very creative but haven't been approved by a client or run in paid media. "[Asia's creative industry] needs to sort that out. It makes us look stupid."

Alex Burnard, creative director of internationally awarded Crispin Porter Bogusky agency in Miami, says, "I had never seen so many scam ads in an awards festival like in Pattaya. It is really worrying and makes us look stupid. I don't want to be in an industry that does that." Mark Sydney, creative director at Gavin McLeod Australia, says, "I have no idea how to judge it. I've never seen anything like it."

Burnard continues, "Scam commercials do not push the industry forward." Instead, here's what he suggests: "Do something that's different, that changes perceptions. What's a good roadmap if agencies give themselves more respect and that could take the industry forward," he declares.

The most stinging rebuke came from DDB New Zealand ECD Tony Talbot. Talbot who was also chair of last year's Australia national award show and D&AD jury member said: "Asia has a fantastic reputation for world-class print. Rightly or wrongly, it also has a reputation for doing world-class scam ads."

He advises: "Don't enter anything vaguely scammy as you'll be only doing more damage to the reputation of your industry." What he wants to see are "big ideas for real clients that actually ran the ad. Not another exquisite campaign for a model shop."

But Prasoon Pandey, director of Corcoise Film in Mumbai, says scam ads should be supported. "I think award shows should honor scam ads. They encourage big ideas."

http://business.inquirer.net/money/features/view/20080404-128281/Scam-ad-scandals-mar-Asia-Adfest