The True Cannes Lions Hitory : The amazing fligth of a winged lion

The True Cannes Lions Hitory
The amazing fligth of a winged lion
Portuguese version
In 1950, a group of leaders of the cinema screen advertising contractors from several countries decided to get together in some informal meetings in order to exchange information on commercials among themselves. In one of those meetings, the members of this group, always focused on the screen and that later would establish the major worldwide association of the industry, took the reels of their respective countries to show to their colleagues.Three years after the first meeting – thus, in 1953 – the non-formal meetings took an official form with the creation of SAWA - Screen Advertising World Association, a non-profit entity, founded by the four major representatives of the area: the English Ernest Pearl, the Frenchman Jean Mineur, the German Fritz Rotschild and the Argentinean Curt Lowe.Chaired by the English founder, from the cinema screen advertising contractor Pearl & Dean, one of the first measures taken by the Association was the establishment of regular meetings, to be held every two years in London; and the creation, in that same year, of an international exhibitionof advertising films that, in fact, turned out to be the first SAWA's Festival.Without the commitment or the purpose of giving awards, the exhibition was opened to the interested audience, in the old Palais de Cannes (where the Noga Hilton is situated today), a strategically chosen city because, once, since the end of the 40¹s, it was the hosting venue of the glamorous International Film Festival.Suggested by the Italian Massimo Momigliano, from the commercials distributor Sipra, member of SAWA, in the following year the event was transferred to the romantic Venice, where the Festival got a competitive feature, awarding the winners of the only participating area – Advertising Films – the so-called "First", "Second" and "Third Prize".To distinguish the winners, that still competed in categories divided by "time" and "technique" (the product¹s division was established only in 1969, when the Gold, Silver and Bronze Lions were also created), the event organizers ordered at the Argentieri Miracuolli jewelry store, Milan, thetrophies that reproduced with accuracy one of the most admired sculptures of the world – the Winged Lion of Venice.To the French and Italian pride, until the mid 80’s the SAWA's Festival, as it was known, was held alternatively in both cities. Therefore, in the odd years, the event was held along the Cannes bay and, in the even years, along the Venice channels.The only exception took place at the end of the 50's, when, due to an agenda problem, the awarding ceremony was held, with the same splendor, in Monte Carlo, since both host cities had their infrastructure totally committed to other cultural events.To displeasure of the Italian organizers, at the end of the 70’s the event organization began to lose its strength due to the – not less organized – Italian strikes that started to jeopardize seriously the Festival success by paralyzing the hostelry services, transportations and even restaurants,claiming for better wages to the working class.In 1984, the feared "sciopero" reached its apex, forcing delegations of all the participant countries – irrespective of origin, age or number of awards – to include, in the already intense activity program, the cleaning of their rooms and the cooking of their food, while the SAWA organizers were obliged to improvise, in astonishment, the awarding ceremony outdoors, along theLido beach.Since then, the event that was held in Venice wrecked in the city’s channels, and Cannes became the unique Festival official stage. Offended by SAWA's decision, the Italian organizers prohibited the use of the Venice's symbol image in the trophies, which had their forms cleverly replaced by astylized lion, in order to avoid losing the characteristic of an already renowned icon of the major worldwide advertising award.


The Hatchuel's roar
Ironically, after losing the winged lion symbol, the SAWA’s festival took a higher flight. In 1985, when the Frenchman Roger Hatchuel was appointed President of the Association, he realized the need of carrying out several operational changes in order to keep pace with the changes imposed by the new times and to face the increasing competition on the sector.
Therefore, in Hatchuel’s enterprising view, it would be necessary to count on the marketing and staff expertise, essential for the expected Festival development. On the other hand, as SAWA, according to its By-Laws, could not be profit oriented, the entity new president also revealed his lion's power by resigning from his position in order to create, together with three partners, the Batongrade, a company exclusively devoted to the event organization from which he is the chairman and major leader.
Despite the controversy surrounding the enterprise, which took place at the end of 1986, Hatchuel managed to sign a ten year representative contract of the event, a period in which the SAWA's Festival – under the name of Cannes Lions – got unthinkable dimensions, even in the world's most creative minds.
Relying on major investments and more professionalism, the event experienced a greater repercussion, drawing an increasing number of delegates, journalists, contestants and participant countries. However, in 1991, as many people can remind, the worldwide advertising industry was bombarded with its first big crisis since the Second World War. Directly affected by the situation, once more the organization counterattacked the troubles with strategic weapons, by positioning Cannes as the best place in the world to recycle and to improve one¹s area
knowledge.
Deserving its activity, two slogans were created and widely published: "Cannes. More work, less beach" and, then referring to the very famous MBA, "Cannes, the place to obtain a MCA – Master of Creativity in Advertising". At the same time, with the purpose of optimizing the attendants’investments, a high level seminar series were added to the activities program, organized by worldwide agencies and media companies. This would be just the beginning of a lot of innovations, gradually established by Hatchuel. Thus, in 1992, the event organization added the Press & Poster area, that started to compete, parallel to the Films, for the desired Lions.
In the following year, the launching of an unusual project brought, literally speaking, new blood to the Festival. It was the Young Creatives, which has already attracted the participation of 600 young copywriters and art directors from 35 countries, which accepted the challenge of creating,
in 24 hours, a printed message from a briefing determined by the organization.
Recently, in 1998, the event surrendered to the fascination of the on-line world, as well as its undeniable importance as an advertising format and media, creating the area of Cyber Lions, whose acceptance was proved, still in its first year, for nothing short of 401 registered works, an amount a little bit smaller than the one reached in the Media Lions premiere, in 1999, when there were a total of 421cases.
Doubtless that the efforts done during the 90’s have reached complete success, a performance that was repeated at the beginning of this new decade, with the Global Online Advertising Forum – sponsored in association with the Jupiter Media Metrix – that showed to the open-mouthed formal advertising players the characteristics, functions, languages and perspectives of the online advertising.
As it couldn't be different, especially after three years of dedication to the online universe, in 2001 the Festival made its entry in the web by launching its first official site (www.canneslions.com).
"Our ambition is to continuesly make Cannes the worldwide rendez vous of the global advertising community involving agencies, producers, designers and clients. To that effect, the development of a website is a major element of our strategy because belonging to the 'Cannes Club' offers one¹s the possibility of keeping offline for one week in Cannes and online with the rest of the world during 51 weeks", highlights the chairman of the Festival, Roger Hatchuel, reminding that the development and the improvement of this project was the core of his work during the last year. "But a lot of improvements in the content of the site, both in the files and in the
directory, are still ahead of us", foresees him.
With this same feline view, worthy of the lions, Hatchuel keeps looking always for new opportunities to optimize the event, as the creation of the Cannes Lions Direct, an area directed to the marketing communications, foreseen to 2002.


Brazil shines under the sun of Cannes

With the advent of the commercial television, in 1964, the SAWA's Festival started to award the cinema screen advertising, in 35 mm, together with the television commercials, produced in quadruplex, the standard videotape format at that time.
In the meantime, however, Brazil not even dreamt about attending an awarding like that, especially because the transmission of advertising messages in the domestic television was prohibited in the country, by Jânio Quadros’s order, brazilian president on that period .
It was only in 1970 that the Brazilian advertisement scenery changed, with the creation of CP - Movies and Advertising, headed by the Argentine Victor Petersen (former-Lowe Films) and the Brazilian Luiz Antônio Ribeiro Pinto (former-Rank Advertising Films), that soon affiliated the new films exhibition and distribution company to SAWA.
Our creative abilities were revealed in the following year, when Brazil won its first Lions, including a Silver one with the ad "The Nobleman" with the famous Brazilian actor Raul Cortez. Created by then Julio Ribeiro/Mihanovitch agency and produced by Ultima Films, the message –
exhibited in a sepia copy – promoted not only the Swift sausage, but also divulged the Brazilian talent to the whole world.
Two Bronzes were also granted to the "Overturn", from Lince and Rui Agnelli for Cofap, and "The Big Class of Satisfaction", from Hot Shop and Ultima Filmes for Lacta chocolates.
To Ribeiro Pinto, the brilliant Brazilian performance in its début in Cannes, when it competed with 22 films (against the 378 Brazilian registrations in 2001), is largely due to the outstanding participation of Alex Periscinoto in the jury.
Appointed as member of the jury for two consecutive years, a unusual fact in the event history, the current Institutional Advertising Secretary on the Communication Secretariat of the Brazilian Presidency reminds that in his first night in Cannes he got the opportunity to go to the movies, since at that time this was an unique chance to watch the latest releases, which took years to be exhibited in Brazil.
But, during the day, it was needed to work a lot to evaluate the 615 contestant commercials and to promote the national advertising in interviews to several worldwide media companies, with the purpose of spreading the creative potential of the country worldwide. "My basic speech was around the Brazilian creativity value, considering our scarce investments", remembers Periscinoto, who states that the same argument is still applied today.
No matter what, since the 80’s, when we reached the status of the third most awarded country of the Festival, only behind England and United States, Brazil is conquering international prestige, supported by its outstanding performances in the printed media area – through which it won the Grand Prix of 1993, with DM9's campaing for the Guaraná Antarctica Diet – and an online
advertisement, which also connected the country to the ranking of the most awarded countries in Cannes, granting us also with a Grand Prix, won last year by AgenciaClick, with a project developed to Banco de Olhos de São Paulo (São Paulo Eyes Bank).
One's would be blind if could not see the growth size reached by the country in the last years, both in qualitative and quantitative terms. After all, we are among the few markets of the world that have sustained the leadership of the four areas embraced by the Festival, opposite to nations like Sweden, Australia, France, Spain and Germany, that have already reached the top, still remained there for just a few years of glory.
In addition to that, the country success was outstanding in the last three European summers. In 1998, DM9DDB was elected the Agency of Year – with a Gold Lion, four Silver Lions, six Bronze Lions, a Cyber Lion and 19 Finalists – a title that was repeated in the following year, when it surprised the world by receiving four Gold Lions, two Silver Lions, four Bronze Lions, another Cyber Lion and 41 Finalists.
In 2000, the most awarded agency of the world was another Brazilian shop: AlmapBBDO, wich won the Award when it seized four Gold Lions, two Silver Lions, three Bronze Lions and 23 Finalists, without mentioning the prizes it won in the media and online areas, registered by its specialized division (On Media), of independent performance.
Besides, this year Brazil secured the second position in the registered inscriptions, competing with a total of 2,686 pieces (against the 2,794 registered by the United States), of which 378 will compete in the Film area; 1,880 in the Press & Poster area; 375 in the Cyber Lion; and 53 in the
Media Lions.
According to Ênio Vergeiro, market development director of the newspaper O Estado de S.Paulo – the Festival representative in the country today – this privileged volume of participants is due to a year that has proved economically feasible for the market, as well to the media company efforts that widely advertised the categories and registration deadlines. A full
infrastructure was especially established to clarify any doubts of the interested parties, offering an exclusive telephone service (Call Cannes), as well as a translation of the event official site in the Estadão online pages (www.estadao.com.br).
The Promocine's replacement, until then the Brazilian representative of the Festival, complies with the organizers new strategy, which aims a major involvment of communication companies in the Festival representation. Thus, following the criteria that granted the task to the US Today newspaper in the United States, and the La Reforma in Mexico, the O Estado de S.Paulo
was chosen because it stands as a traditional brand, that is distinguished by its ethical commitment, receiving a high credibility from its readers and from the advertising market, with which Vergeiro promises to be much more closer to its relationships, so that Brazil will be able to shine even more under the sun of Cannes.

Memories that didn't perish on the beach
Based in his old experience in the jury, Alex Periscinoto does not hesitate in assuring that the ghost commercials always existed. "In 1972, based on what I had seen in the previous year, I suggested that a specific area for ghosts were created, idea that I maintain until today because I believe that if such pieces don't have commercial relevance, they also don't fail to express the creative capacity", he argues.
However, the majority of the professionals do not share his opinion. The participation of not-published pieces or pieces developed to fictitious clients ended up separating W/Brasil from the Festival in the period from 1991 to 1996. Nevertheless, the agency was one of the most awarded of that decade and its president and creative director, Washington Olivetto, not
even knows how many Lions were hunted along his career.
As it happens, however, we never forget the first award. Washington was only 20 years old when he won a Bronze Lion in the 1972 Festival, with a film created by Lince Propaganda for the Deca¹s tap. "I was at the beginning of my career, I didn't have any hope to win and neither dreamed about the possibility to go to Cannes. So much that I didn¹t attend the festival", he
regrets.
Three years later, Olivetto went there to personally receive the first Brazilian Gold Lion, granted to the "Man over 40", created by DPZ and produced by ABA Films for the Advertising National Board – a work that, it is worth to say, generated a bill against middle age discrimination found in
the job ads.
"When I saw myself in the same environment with idols like David Ogilvy and Ed McCabe, I thought that I had died and gone directly to the heaven", he likes to say. If he didn't go up to the heaven, no doubt that his performance in the several versions of the Cannes Festival took him to the top of the worldwide advertisement. "I remember that one of the event directors, the English Simon Dalgleish, used to greet the awarded professionals with champagne in the Carlton Hotel Petit Bar. Thanks to God, I was one of those who most drank champagne", he remembers with inebriant pride.
To Olivetto, another reason to be toasted is his great number of Lions achieved only in the Film category, area to which he has a deeper emotional tie. "The commercials mix the advertisement magic with that one of the cinema", justifies him, announcing that this is the first year in which, out
of consideration for the art directors that participated in the Absinth campaign,W/Brasil decided to compete in Press & Poster.
Despite the activity he is involved with, the director Andres Bukowinski, ABA Films titular, supports the establishment of Press & Poster, Cyber Lion and Media Lions areas in the Festival, although he also believes that the initiative is, in a way, easily granting awards to the agencies. "In former days, it was much more difficult to win a Lion. Today, as the options of awards are larger, the flavor of the victory decreased."
With 25 Lions caught with bare hands, Bukowinski was the first director to receive three consecutive awards in the Festival. His premiere was in 1964, when he worked at the Lowe Films of Argentina, of which, afterwards, he became a partner.
"I was 24 years old when I won the First Prize in the category "More than 60 seconds", with the film "Romance in 4-L", and the Second Prize in the category "Up to 60 seconds", with "Indestructible Jeep", both created by Puereyrdon to promote two Renault launchings.
As soon as he arrived in Brazil, he won, together with Washington Olivetto, the Lion granted to "Man over 40" and, as he reveals, another Gold granted to a free-lancer work created by the so-called Golden Boy (nickname invented by the journalist Telmo Martino) to Banco Bamerindus. "I needed to create a pseudonym to Washington, that turned to be George Remington, a name that
combines allusions to the former North American president with a typewriter machine brand competitor of Olivetti", he jokes.
As a good journalist, José Cláudio Maluf, nowadays director of the Maluf Criação e Produção, in charge of the site Penúltimas e Malufax, took careful notice of what was happening in the market in 1980, when he departed for the first time to Cannes, as the editor of Asteriscos, an insert of Diário Popular, directed towards the advertising activity.
"My first headline on the Festival reported that Brazil had been robbed. I wrote the text and sent by telex", he laughs, referring to the poor resources of that time.
Not all stories that took place in Cannes were published by the professional, especially because, as he explains, there weren¹t yet national competitors among the few journalists that covered the event.
But a good amount of events will remain forever in his mind, such as the evening when Eduardo Fischer, our Brazilian juryman, was amusing himself in a dinner sponsored by Bozell, when the party presenter, Larry Dobrow, called him to disclose the Grand Prix. "And he, that was still a youngster at that time, disclosed the award loud and clear to all the guests. The chairman of
the jury would like to kill him!" recalls Maluf that, in order not to cause any constraint to his compatriot, lost an international beat.
In 1983, besides covering the event, Maluf was also a contestant to the award, showing his passion for the advertising creation, activity that he performed alongside to his journalist career. He came back to Brazil with a Bronze Lion, won with the commercial "Dog", created for ESPM (advertising school at São Paulo).
"That was a long time ago" – he analyzes with modesty. It was a time when the daily rate at the Hotel De France, where I used to stay, was US$ 30,00, almost seven times cheaper than today. It is the law of supply and demand". And what a demand! According to Luiz Antônio Ribeiro Pinto, of Promocine, in 1971 the Festival had an attendance of 459 delegates, against more than
9,000 that compete nowadays for the 2,500 available rooms in Cannes, including all the hotels of the city.



Neither black tie, nor social affront
With the popularization of the event, in 1980 the old Palais, a small palace of French architecture, which seated 1,200 was deactivated and replaced for a new one, the biggest in its kind in Europe, that only in its main auditorium has a capacity to seat twice the number of people, not to mention the other three auditorium, which have a seating capacity of 750 each one.
Some say that, together with the old Palais, that glamour of an event that breathed elegance and sophistication came to an end.
In the same way as many professionals that cooperated to build the Festival history, José Zaragoza and Roberto Duailibi, partners of DPZ, miss the sophisticated atmosphere that involved the city, when men wore black-tie, a clothe that has been replaced even by shorts. "The Festival ended up becoming too big, not only in people's number but in registered pieces", complains Zaragoza.
Actually, since 1971, when the DPZ leader was for the first time in Cannes, the total number of registrations is amazingly increasing; it rocket from 615 to the astonishing figure of 19,013.
To João Daniel Thikomiroff, of Jodaf, the only Latin America producer house that is regularly enlisted in the roll of contestants to the Palm D¹Or of Cannes, such growth reinforces even more the value of the event in the market.
"I disagree from those who says that the cream of the advertising does not value the event any more. The difference is that today we can find at the Croisette both chairmen and trainees from several countries, what has also its fascination", notes the second most awarded director in the Festival history, behind only to the North American Joe Pitka, of a producer house with the same name.
For Washington Olivetto, who is proud of the many overseas friendships that he had the opportunity to form in Cannes, including Michel Shirner, of GGK, whose contact took him to become member of the German agency, in 1986, the glamour loss is not a problem exclusive to the event, but a signal of the globalized times.
Precisely because of this, unresented with this changing process, a new generation of Brazilian advertising men and women is departing to Cannes this year for the first time, with their bags full of expectation.
This is the case of Salles D¹Arcy art director, Daniel Leitão, 26 years old, who says that is, at the same time, anxious and proud. "I¹m proud because I managed to get there and anxious by the opportunity to get in contact with new cultures and see thoroughly what is going on in the worldwide advertising".
Of the same age, Hellen Mundin Veloso is aware that the information is a vital element in this career. "I believe that in Cannes we can live it 24 hours/day, what will be important even to train the critical eye", says the copywriter of Age, one of the guests of the organization to integrate the
group of Young Creatives.
And even those ones who have been there last year, such as Marcelo Fedrizzi, art director of DM9DDB, that has also competed in the Young Creatives program; João Paulo Magalhães, copywriter of DPZ, who defines the experience as a watermark in one¹s career; or Alexandre Lucas, copywriter of Age, who says that have traced in one week the best and the worst of the
worldwide advertising, they all managed to depart this year to Cannes.
But, this time, the expectations are still greater, as confess the copywriter of DM9DDB, Rafael Merel: "The first experience was to see how it works. Now it is to win!"
In fact, regardless the circumstances, who visits the major advertising shop window may not get a Lion, but, doubtlessly, will come back for the working table with a much more sharpened claws.

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