Awards Drive Us Forward
It’s the time of the year (again) for debating awards shows and how much or little they ultimately matter in the creative industry. The issue against was most recently and notably raised by the great Amir Kassaei, warranting a swift response from D&AD heads Tim Lindsay & Andy Sandoz.
Having won awards myself, currently judging a major tech/creative event, and undergoing a fiction writing workshop that forces me to focus on humanity’s big questions, the recent exchange sparked in me a deeper pondering of the meaning of awards and recognition , not just in the ad industry, but the society as a whole.
For ad awards are by no means the most meaningful ones. People in our industry thinking that the big cat matters to your mom or the guy next door will be wise to note that ‘Cannes Lions’ doesn’t even register compared to Grammys, Golden Globes or the Oscars. It is, by the way, interesting to observe that even as the number of ‘Oscars don’t matter’ articles proliferate, and Academy Awards TV ratings sink, online interest towards the Oscars keeps climbing. However, even the Oscars are dwarfed by the Olympics, which in turn are dwarfed by the Soccer World Cup. And yes, the Soccer Cup leaves Super Bowl squarely in the dust.
Awards shows are also not restricted to industries populated by the young, beautiful and athletic. Scientists have the Nobel Prize, the relevance of which is interestingly also under attack. Authors have their Nobel too, along with countless other awards, such as the Man Booker and the Franz Kafka. When you really look around, practically every industry, and nearly every aspect of human life — or animal life, for that matter — has its awards. Or what do you think of the solid waste management awards, the award for the most baffling comment by a public person, or the award for the most active donkey(!).
Many state that the problem with ad awards is not that they exist, but that they’re not objective; work is awarded regardless of whether or not it performed in the market, or whether it even was in the market. Being a big proponent of data-driven marketing and constant improvement, I think that especially the biggest winners should definitely have to prove their worth. But for creative inspiration, I sure love to see showcases other than Wal-Mart and marketing executions besides those on Sunday Night Football breaks, no matter how effective these are proven to be. The events themselves are naturally great mingling hotspots in an industry built on human relationships — which are rather subjective by default.
Indeed, subjectivity is not an ad industry problem, but a human trait. Wherever there’s people and competition, there are opinions, rivaling views and politics. The Nobels have a history of controversies in the hardest of sciences, not to even mention #OscarsSoWhite. Sports are routinely rumored to be rigged, and the same goes for Presidential Elections in the freest, most democratic country in the world. And what was the objective economic benefit for being first to the Moon? Some say the 200 billion spent between ’62 and 72' could have been better used on e.g. energy and food. But then there was the award of being ‘first’; throw in the cold war and it becomes a non-decision. Beyond us mere mortals, quantum physics posit that even all observed physical reality depends on the observer.
As human beings, we strive for better. Constantly, endlessly, unstoppably. And to do that we need to, somehow, see where we stand. Even when the measure is not perfectly objective, it does make us tick. When we feel the guy behind us breathing down our necks, but can already see the tail lights of the one ahead of us, that’s when we’re at our best. Not just as professionals, but as representatives of the human race.
That’s why we will always need to know who’s better than someone else.
That’s why there will always be awards and award shows.
And that’s a great thing.
For even as they motivate some of us to game the system, they stimulate more of us to catch the spark in the first place; to be inspired; to push forward. They force us to be the best versions of ourselves that we can possibly be.
Let’s go get ’em.
