Stop bragging, no one cares about your awards.

 

Self ad - published in Lebanese newspapers in 2005

I just saw a video for an agency, bragging how much awards they collected this year. The friend who sent it, insisted "numbers matter", to which I asked (seriously): "For whom?".

Am truly serious, who gives a damn. Your site activation? Forgotten, if at all noticed. Your 30 seconds that you ran around midnight just to fulfill the conditions of entering the award show? No one saw it. Your campaign for a civic cause which seem to mushroom right before major award shows which change nothing on the ground and which no one paid attention to in real life? Well, they change nothing on the ground. Your rebranding for an obscure brand which no one knows? As if seriously this tilts how consumers buy. That silly case you presented whereby - and I kid you not - a brand claimed it "saved democracy in Lebanon"? Yeah right, thank you, next. 

And the list goes on, and on, and on.

All right, let me ask this question: Who is the creative director of Chanel? Yes, that Chanel. Most of you do not know, or might say - as if you know the secret of the universe - Karl Lagerfeld. Well, newsflash, Lagerfeld passed away and was succeeded by his right hand woman Virginie Viard who left/was sacked (depending on which story you believe), and now? Chanel currently has no creative director.

Does that influence the bragging right of a woman who spent a fortune on a Chanel boy bag? Or a pair of ballerinas? Or whatever? Let me ask you this other question - who is the creative director for the menswear line of Hermes? Again, that Hermes. It is the same person since 1988 - the incredible Veronique Nichanian. But again, do you know? Do you care? Does it influence when you chose to gift your significant other a (beautifully-designed) cashmere sweater? No, it does not.

And again, same applies all over the place - no one gives a hoot about the statues you won or accumulated. I remember this agency which had a huge, huge row upon row of awards stacked behind the welcome desk on glass scaffoldings. Need I tell you what happened to them after the explosion of August 2020 in Lebanon? 

So people it is fine, congrats on the awards, no one gives a toss though!