Cannes Lions 2014

Dear Philip,



I attend the Cannes Lions Festivals as a delegate every year since 1991. It was like an university for me. Over these years, I won a couple of Film Lions as a writer, as a Creative Director and as a Director. And was a judge in the Craft Category in 2012.



I tell you those not trying to impress you (after all, any trainee has Lions nowadays), but to give you an idea of how much this Festival was part of my life.



In 1991, when you were still a journalist and 15 years before you were appointed CEO of Cannes Lions, I attended the Festival for the first time. Since then, I always came back. At the comfortable purple seats of the Grand Auditorium and Debussy I slept during endless long lists. And I watched thousands of Film Lions winners I will never forget.

I saw Goodby's FreshMex campaign, the birth of the Just do it campaign, the classics Hallmark emotional spots, Spike Jonze's "Tainted love" spot for Levi's, Hal Riney's films, Cliff Freeman's "Pizza pizza Little Caesar's" spots, the Sedelmeier's Fedex spots, BBH's "The swimmer" and Jim Riswold's spots for Nike.



I saw blind tests made with Ray Charles. I saw a funny bad guy kill the good guy in a spot for Diesel. I saw The Independent saying "Don't read" and so many other spots which shaped me as a creative and set an incredibly high bar for my professional life.



Well, the times have changed. Big groups bought agencies. Bought clients. And, of course, bought the Cannes Lions Festival. With the new Festival, came the extinction of the delegate book that showed the credit of every work. The zillions Lions for endless subcategories. The seminars with Sarah Jessica Parkers replacing the Film Screenings in the main auditories. And the film screenings in small rooms with lights on, ordinary chairsand projections with half of the screen taken by credits. I didn't agree with all those changes, but I never said a word.



Until now. Today I saw Joe Pytka talking in one of the few seminars with no anchor-celebrities of this year. Joe was showing his work. The fabulous work that changed the face of film advertising in the 90's and inspired a whole generation.



Well, Philip, as you know, on Saturday Joe will be honored with a special Lion for his lifetime achievement in advertising (I'm not sure if it's a Tungsten Lion or a Borium Lion since the periodic chart of elements is about to run out of options).



What you might not know is that the same legendary work that Joe will be honored for is the work the Festival just excluded from the Cannes Lions Archive (along with thousands of classics which were made between 1991 and 2000).



That must be a first: induct someone to a Hall of Fame at the same time you throw out his work to oblivion.



I'm sure Joe can live with that. After all, he has his spots at home. But what about the rest of us? The ones who still believe that film storytelling is more important than a videocase? The ones who know that you learn ten thousand times more about the craft by watching great work than hearing a marketing guy talk about convergence and the future of advertising?



I asked the Festival organization why someone would erase a whole decade of classics spots like that? They just answered that it was a question of format. That the format of the archives of the spots from the 90's is incompatible with the new website.



Well, Philip, if I were you, I would fire the guy who decided that. Because of the proactivity of this visionary, thousands of unforgetful spots will be lost forever. The audience of your website will drop for sure because no one wants to watch the archived videocases that are filling the space of great spots. And, the most tragic part, the new generations of creatives won't have the opportunity to learn from the Pytkas, the Sedelmaiers, the Riswolds, the Hal Rineys, the Wiedens, the John Websters, the Goodbys, the Dusenberries, the Abbotts, the McElligotts and the Olivettos.



I'm sorry to bother you with this letter about old TV spots. Especially at this time of the year when you are so busy with celebrities, seminars, workshops and endless award ceremonies. But I'm doing so because I still care about the Festival.



Please, send my regards to Joe tomorrow.



Sincerely yours,



Dulcidio Caldeira