Cannes Jury President Announced
November 19, 2007
Worldwide chief creative officer of JWT, Craig Davis, has been named jury president for the Film and Press competitions at the 2008 Cannes Lions.
In 2005, Davis wrote a piece for AdCritic about judging awards shows where he makes a long winded case for opening them up to a democratic vote:
“So are awards shows ready for democracy? Just as awards shows have moved on from being simply a celebration of concepts and craft skills in TV and print with juries comprised exclusively of people from adland, we should broaden things even further. Why not include the audience, real people, and indeed the best bloggers and gamers, on our industry juries?”
Guess he abandoned that idea because he seems quite happy to take up his new honor and without a word about “democracy.” Davis told AdWeek that: “Great creativity can and does come from anywhere. What I love about Cannes is that it recognizes this truth across multiple disciplines on a scale unmatched by any other awards festival. It’s an honor to be leading the search for the world’s best creativity in film and press advertising in 2008.”
November 19, 2007 at 9:42 pm
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November 19, 2007 at 11:52 pm
Further proof BDA’s are fucked… Wanna bet he awards JWT the Zirconium Lion for best match book cover!
Cheers/George
November 19, 2007 at 11:54 pm
Jesus Christ, advertising awards show juries haven’t even embraced diversity, and now he wants to introduce democracy? The juries have been and continue to be exclusive clubs. Plus, remember that last year’s Cannes jury decided to shift the winning spot into a different category. That’s hardly the work of a democracy.
November 20, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Has Craig Davis actually achieved anything to warrant being Cannes Jury President? The guy seems totally over-rated
November 20, 2007 at 5:54 pm
Get rid of scam ads first, then they can open them up.
Otherwise, everyone will be vvoting on what is usually 80% fake ads at Cannes.
December 4, 2007 at 12:53 am
Can anyone name a single decent ad that this guy has done himself?
Perhaps this is an attempt by Cannes to ‘democratise’ the judging – they’ve got a president of press and film who’s never actually written an ad.
December 5, 2007 at 10:03 pm
He’s global creative director at one of the biggest ad agencies in the world, clearly he’s done something right. JWT have quite an impressive client base so I think i’d prefer to be him, than one of you randoms who has too much time on their hands… (oh and for the record i’m a random with too much time on my hands just like you!)
December 21, 2007 at 12:24 am
That’s not much of an argument, Young One. The question is what has this guy done to merit being global Cd of JWT and president of Cannes juries? Your answer is that he’s a global cd.
I think it’s a good question. What has this guy done?
March 23, 2008 at 5:55 am
Skeletor-lookalike Davis is an idiot who will say anything if he thinks it will help his career. ‘The consumer’s time is the new currency’?? Don’t think so. It’s attention just as it always has been. ‘Let’s democratize the Cannes voting’. Don’t think so. Watch while I put all my mates on the juries and celebrate the least ‘democratic’ Cannes since awards began.