I’m old, boring and completely not up-to-date

At least that’s how I feel in this business sometimes. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to become an old bitter man, and I certainly don’t want to falsely create the impression that I am - and become a sort of Waldorf-and-Statler of advertising.

But today I read in MM’s the comments of Phil Van Duynen, Belgian member of the Cannes Direct Jury:

“the trend (in Cannes) this year is surprise over relevance, emotion over strategy, entertainment over efficiency, and humour over intelligence. Life’s too short to be bored, no?”

So, here’s me thinking, if I were an advertiser,

- I wouldn’t want to have to choose between surprise and relevance

- I wouldn’t want to have to choose between humour and intelligence

- I wouldn’t know why emotion and strategy would be conflicting (I think any strategist will agree here!)

- I wouldn’t know why entertainment couldn’t be efficient (hello, anybody missed any trends on branded entertainment?)

But I also know that if i really were an advertiser, and I would really have to choose, I’d go for relevance, intelligence and efficiency any time (and twice on sunday). The paradoxical choice between strategy and emotion I can’t yet solve, cause it still puzzles me.

So, I can’t help concluding I’m compeletey out-of-sync. Doesn’t make me too sad though …