the eagle has landed...

On “Murder She Wrote,” an invitation to Jessica Fletcher’s house for the weekend was really just a form of assisted suicide, try; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G63_RDW-cyo for flashbacks.

The invitation to The Eagles awards breakfast was less deadly, perhaps, …but murder was definitely in the air.
The whole affair has a decidedly more grown up feeling than other local award do’s, probably because at 8am on a Tuesday it’s only the really hardcore fun-seekers who are going to turn up drunk and abusive. Actually The Eagles are unusual in the reticence of the judges to hand them over to hard working creative chaps and chapettes, every Tom, Dick and Harriet has a Loerie or an Ad of the Month pat, but not many have a the more elusive bird of prey.

The breakfast kicked off with some sticky buns, bacon and scambled egg, again a civilised touch that goes down well with adland types dragged from their beds into inhospitable Sandton. Next up were the speeches. Local ad guru Rob McLennan introduced the main event, a brace of Creative Directors from London’s AMV BBDO, with his usual aplomb and the two international judges rose to take their turn at the lectern.
First up was Tony Hardcastle, a man with a clutch of international awards from his work on iconic Brands such as BBW, Orange and The Economist.

A diminutive whippet of a Yorkshireman he delivered a presentation entitled “Murder” (you see, I did get back to it), about the death of ideas and those responsible for the genocide of genius. It was a well put together speech, dotted with references to glorious work past and present. A UK government ad banning Pit-Bull terriers from the streets was used as a perfect example of how a forceful concept can be whittled away to almost nothing. Well, nothing but that drivel we are all too familiar with when a committee has shown its collective brilliance in decision making.

Perhaps more interesting were the four, filmed interviews with other alumnae of UK Adland. A guy called Tim, also from AMV BBDO, discussed the difficulty of producing decent press ads over all other media. (You could feel the event’s sponsors, Independent newspapers squirming with pleasure). He showed some excellent examples of why the media remains the most challenging of all, citing the need to rise above the clutter of the newspaper both visually and in headline and copy. It’s a good interview and those of the audience who were listening and not smiling at prospective bosses would have gained a lot from it.

Next up, Nick Gill Exec CD of BBH, was equally erudite, extolling the virtues of a campaign his agency had produced for Banardo’s, the agency that look after abused, homeless and kids who have generally had a bad time. It was good work and Nick’s discussion on the use of white space to cause an impact should have had 90% of the art directors in the room re-thinking their use of the “cover-all exploding image” technique so prevalent locally. He also made a strong argument for intelligent words in ads, something the judges had mentioned over a quiet beer the night before.

Unfortunately I was distracted by my art director’s wacky, if beautifully arty, designer shoes from the hot designers at Iron Fist, and missed most of the next guy. Lastly was Dave Dye, who spoke of honesty and integrity in ads and the need to use simple messages that don’t get lost in the overly designed world of the Mac. I suspect this message went over the heads of most of the audience who firmly believe that turning on their Mac is the same as turning on their brains.
Tony then made a few apposite points about adland, clients and, of course, client service which got a few chuckles.

Richard Dennison was next on his feet. Drafted in at the last minute to replace some other geezer he held forth on the subject of doing ads that looked closer to home than a Cannes jury. He made a few cogent points about the dumbing down of adland by internationalism and “one ad fits all” messaging but the room was packed with people who see international awards as their ticket to fame and fortune and therefore the point went as wide as a Bafana Bafana penalty.
All in all it was a few hours well spent in the civilised company of some of adland’s finest. And that was odd enough to make the morning memorable.