Friday, June 14, 2013

11210: New Awards For Cannes.

Advertising Age reported Cannes will add trophies for health care agencies and clients in 2014. The special Lions will be doled out two days before the main awards. Side effects include delusions of grandeur. In recent years, the arguably prestigious festival has appealed to overblown—and income-generating—egos through the introduction of honors for innovation, PR, effectiveness and even holding companies. Yet there appears to be no interest in saluting multicultural marketing. Hell, would it be asking too much to set aside an afternoon before the health care event to high-five the minorities? The snub underscores the lack of respect for multicultural marketing and its practitioners—as well as the true global apathy for industry diversity. A weeping Dan Wieden declared his ADCOLOR® Award was the most important trophy he ever received. Knighted hypocrite Sir John Hegarty blathered about the imperative for inclusiveness. Jeff Goodby probably wanders the beaches in Cannes wondering, “Where are all the Black people?” Perhaps an award could be created to recognize the efforts of such noble defenders of diversity. Call it the Adamantium Lyin’.

Cannes Will Add Lions Health in 2014 In Separate Festival

Two-Day Event Before Main Awards Will Target Health Care Agencies and Marketers

By Laurel Wentz

Are health-care agencies and their clients the last group in the ad world that don’t enter and attend the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in large numbers? The festival is fixing that, with a brand-new Lions Health festival set to debut next year.

The two-day Lions Health awards will be held right before the main Cannes festival starts on Sunday, June 15, 2014. Those awards will replicate much of the main festival, with five juries to judge entries, a Young Lions contest for specialist health care creatives, and a health care Young Marketers Academy. And of course a Lions Health awards show evening.

The festival said Lions Health will cover three areas: health (communication that falls under regulatory restrictions), wellness (communications that aren’t regulated) and sustainability.

Many of the main festival contests are divided into product categories that already include a pharmacy or healthcare category that includes everything from over-the-counter and prescription medicines to anti-hair loss lotions, but they are often overshadowed by more glamorous product categories.

It’s a big market. In the U.S. alone, health care communications agencies had total revenue of $3.62 billion, according to Ad Age’s DataCenter. The biggest network by far is Publicis Groupe’s Publicis Healthcare Communications Group, with U.S. revenue in 2012 of $505 million.

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