R/GA founder Bob Greenberg admits if scam work is innovative judges ‘let it pass’
Greenberg
If scam work entered into awards is innovative enough it can be ok for jurors to let it pass because it is showing the way forward, Bob Greenberg, co-founder of R/GA told Mumbrella during a live video hangout.
Greenberg took part in a live video hangout with Mumbrella today touching on a variety of topics including the future of the industry, the model behind the agency, his views on the future of wearable technology, and his view on award shows and scam advertising.
Greenberg was reflecting on his experiences as a juror at the Cannes Lions, where the Press category has been the subject of a Mumbrella investigation in recent weeks, noting “that the one thing we know about Cannes is that you can’t win without doing a sophisticated, complicated video”.
This is pathetic. No doubt Bob Greenberg approves of Olympic gold medal winning athletes keeping their medals if they’ve only used an ritzy bitzy amount of illegal drugs. After all, in Bob’s warped world, “it’s still showing the way forward”. [Or could Bob’s idiotic comments just be his very own self -serving Cannes insurance policy with Terry
in town?].
Creative industry needs to decide if is artistic or commercial and accept the consequences accordingly (acclaim or success- rare to have both).
unacceptable trying to have their cake and eat it (in this case, producing art and pretending they drive commercial outcomes in order to win awards, grow brand and win business)
World class hairstyle
Bob if they are not paid for they are not ads, they are art.
Art has a separate set of awards.
I think the ‘attracting talent’ mantra is part of the problem. Like there are these magical amazing beings that can stroll into your agency and suddenly wave their magic wand and all your shit briefs and unimaginative clients will be transformed into amazing work overnight.
Good work, amazing work comes from just that. Work. Sure some people have ‘it’ and some don’t, but different, amazing, innovative work comes from sweat and teamwork. Maybe if agencies spent more time growing talent, and less time trying to buy or steal it we would see more brilliant work that get’s noticed by consumers and actually sells things rather than just wins an award that no one outside of the industry really cares about. We might even make some of our clients money.
How many times have you seen a creative team, that have won a bunch of awards, move to a new shop then suddenly 12 months later they aren’t producing any good work anymore?