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| Art by Tarek Chemaly |
So Cannes 2022 came - and went. Linkedin was exploding with congratulations. I myself, was invited to the annual Epica lunch but declined (considering I need a visa to go to the bathroom as a Lebanese, a lunch on the beach in Cannes was way above what was logical to ask!).
Of course, everyone posted about the wins, congratulated the agencies, the teams and no one said anything about those who lost. I got reminded of the Academy Awards which no longer says "and the winner is" but rather "and the award goes to" because supposedly all nominees are winners (yeah, right).
Rachel from the sitcom Friends put it eloquently when she said "everyone I know is either getting married or getting pregnant or getting promoted, and I'm getting coffee! And it's not even for me!" - look, let me put it this way: Do I have a Cannes Lions? No. Would it be nice if I had one? Well, it would be on the agency shelf - which probably got smashed on the day of the August 2020 explosion in Beirut (but I digress). Do I have awards? Yes, I had to break one in two when I was doing the major cleaning (see here) to fit in the trash bag.
To those who did not win at Cannes, worry not. It seems someone did win in the past and returned his award anyway (hello Gustav Martner) and someone else auctioned an unetched award for the benefit of the victims of the Afghanistan earthquake at USD 10,000 (it was snapped immediately thankfully).
The point? The point is that someone now owns a Cannes Lions award for no ads at all but he has actually helped the victims of the Afghanistan quake. No ads awards in the world can bring such joy.