‘We are creatives, not anthropologists’ argues Elephant Cairo’s Ali Ali following the judging at this year’s Dubai Lynx awards
“I still remember seeing Fallon’s ‘Gorilla’ spot for Cadbury for the first time. It blew me away. It gave a new name to fresh, and surely had the same effect on many. Written and directed by Juan Cabral, an Argentinian creative living and working in London, the spot went on to win the 2008 Cannes grand prix. But according to Prasoon Joshi’s judging criteria, it shouldn’t have. The head of the TV and print jury at this year’s Lynx would have, perhaps, found the spot lacking in cultural relevance. Instead of drumming to Phil Collins, the primate woul
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love it! absolutely agree.
Bravo Ali Ali. Imagine at Cannes if all the work from the UK was discounted because it didn’t include overt imagery of young drinkers chucking up on the streets and teenagers catching STD’s. Cultural relevance my arse.
… don’t forget to include big ben and a red telephone box in the background to make sure it is local.
I think you have overreacted to prasoon joshi, i have attended his sessions all he talks about is the fear of globalisation where everything starts looking the same and there culturally diverse voices can make a diffrence,i think dubai lynx awarded really good work this year and its unfortunate to read this article.
The challenge is for increasingly westward looking ad professionals to come out with narratives which could connect with the average khalid on the street….
When was the last time you met a copywriter who would have have been inside a majlis and had mandi ?
…or who has seen a Bollywood film and celebrates diwali or lives in Cape Town and knows how to use a brai?. Its not all about knowledge of Arabic ways and traditions and it hasn’t been for some time, you need to focus on the consumer in your market. The arabisiation issue is redundant so let’s move on. It’s not about cultural relevance its about good advertising. Its about what triggers an emotion driving to purchase or experience. Look at the demographic breakdown of prospective purchasers in the Gulf. When was the last time we wrote and produced an ad for the sub-continent viewer/reader. They are after all the majority by some margin. Prasoon’s work is so heavily Indian if you look at his reel there is little relevance to anyone living outside, yet he’s also for responsible for the creative product across Asia and having been there and done that the differences between India, and Korea, Japan and the Philippines are vast. One ad does not fit all. Don’t fit in stand out.