What's so special about Cadbury's "Gorilla"?

Most of you are probably over Cannes, and I am too, except that I never got to muse (I mean rant) about the perplexing choice of Cadbury's "Gorilla", from Fallon London, as a Grand Prix winner for Film. According to this story, the Film jury picked it, among other reasons, because it "defies the conventions of the category," by not showing chocolate. True enough, I guess, but there's nothing particularly new about commercials that de-emphasize showing the product. The fact that in this case it was the confectionery category is merely an interesting aside. The jury chair, JWT worldwide chief creative officer Craig Davis of JWT, even went so far as to call the spot "courageous." In a commercial world already inundated with talking lizards and babies who trade stocks, what's so special about a gorilla who drums? It's not a bad commercial. It has great momentum, and a lot of amusing quirks, such as when the gorilla seems to be trying to work the kinds out of his neck, but at the end of the day, "Gorilla" is nothing more than a very well-crafted gimmick. Even in a tie--with T.A.G./McCann Worldgroup's much more deserving "Halo 3" campaign for xBox--it is in no way the best spot of the year.

Today in "I didn't go to Cannes", 06.19.08

Should have concocted this special Adverganza feature earlier in the week, but, hell, been a little busy. Here it is, "Today, in 'I didn't go to Cannes.'" First, wanted to mention that while you all were out partying, I was serving cupcakes at the 5th grade graduation. And now the headlines I read about the advertising event of the year:

—The big winner, so far: HBO's "Voyeur."
—Three Cyber Lion Grand Prix (Prixes?) awarded. Jury intentionally didn't pick work "that does not take full advantage of the unique qualities of the medium, but rather simply used it as an efficient means of distribution." Ergo, "Whopper Freakout" doesn't make the cut.
—Weird. Allegedly it's not too late to register.
—Below, a pic taken by Advertising Age of people who are either really tired or really hungover. For more pics, including a nice shot of some unfortunate woman's armpit, click here.

—Americans with "caffeine issues."
—Grey's Josh Rabinowitz blogs about his music panel.
—BBDO's Susan Credle loses voice, drinks warm beer.
—JWT_Cannes_08 hears that Coke's "Happiness Factory" isn't aimed at kids.

OK, back to drinking home-made espresso, and contemplating my miserable life.

Social Media Insider goes to Cannes with JWT

Hi folks. The latest Social Media Insider column is up. You can read it in full here. Though I'm once again seething with jealousy at anyone who went to Cannes, I like the way JWT is using social media to bring Cannes to the people. Enjoy.

OMD silently pursues Cannes Media Lion

Can't get the audio to play on the video above, but what the hell, since it appears to be an OMD submission for a Cannes Media Lion, worth putting up anyway. Involves "Project Runway" and Hershey's and making a product relevant for today's "hip consumers." Why hasn't the word "hip" been banned by now? The shop also posted this Cannes submission for a campaign it did for Absolut. It, too, doesn't seem to have workable audio.

Lee Clow dreams of a golden iguana

I'm not up on all that is Lee Clow so I didn't know the TBWA/Chiat/Day creative guru had plans to start what he's defining as a "Media Arts Festival" in Mexico because, he says, ""I resent going to France to celebrate advertising." But now that I've read Adweek, I'm all caught up--and he pictures a golden iguana as the top prize. First, I wanted to mention that I've been to the Cannes confab only once but--being not as well traveled as Clow--I wasn't resentful in the slightest. Anyway, the term "media arts" is Clow's way of describing what it is he believes people in advertising are really up to these days, and was the basis of his keynote speech at Adweek's annual Creative Conference. "Everything we do now is media," he said. Part of me really thinks that's true, but the evil part of me just says, "There go those ad guys again trying to pretend they're not in advertising." Some of the agency's work for, say, Apple, is entertaining enough to qualify as media, but, I ask ya, aren't the agency's commercials for Nissan pretty much just commercials?