Much has been written on this subject. There is no doubt that, at worst, the advertising award show is insular, self-serving and wildly in need of change. I’m not sure, however, that it’s the exclusive domain of dyed-in-the-wool boomer Mad Men and their beloved thirty-second TV spot as some would have it, but I do enjoy listening to these kinds of acid review.

I do think the award show still matters. It is a useful tool to determine the competitive bar, for recruiting the best and brightest, and it actually does matter to some clients (perhaps the ones you’d like to have…). It’s also a great way to promote community and celebrate our industry. While it makes sense for us to turn up our 2010 noses at the self-indulgent, champagne-soaked excess on the Cote D’Azur (although I’m bummed I never got to go), I do think there’s room for a celebration of the best in our industry. It just needs to change.

I absolutely don’t believe, as some have argued, that what we need is a fragmented, multi-category candy-sharing event, where everyone gets a pat on the back. There is simply no need for a newspaper category vs. email vs. public service vs. banner ad and so on. And there’s no reason why a truly captivating and effective email should not be judged alongside truly captivating and effective TV (for example). Along the same lines, I recently heard, to my abject dismay, some cohorts refer to ”performance” work as separate to ”creative” work. They’re all the same, for ****’s sake! We do this to sell stuff. The fundamentals of the job involve using creativity to perform.

So we’re all in the same game and if we do an award show at all, I think it has to be about celebrating the groundbreaking and the impactful. Did the work change the game? Did it exceed its goals by an extraordinary margin?

Competition is not democratic. Not everybody wins. You source the best judges and, in theory, the best work gets its just deserts. For the most part that actually happens (seriously, you can’t deny Wieden & Kennedy’s Old Spice work.) And not just because one idea had a bigger budget than another or because the judges value creativity for creativity’s sake.

This year, the Portland Advertising Federation’s Rosey Award Show will attempt to throw out the old bathwater without losing the baby. It won’t be perfect. But it will be different, inclusive and relevant. And next years’ will need to be different again. Ditto the year after. If we’ve learned one thing from these times, it’s that there are no formulae and we need to be constantly examining and re-examining our work, its effectiveness and, by extension, how we celebrate it at its best.

We’ll see you on December 2nd at Portland’s premier celebration of creativity: the all-new, all-happening Rosey Award Show.

Rebecca M Armstrong
Managing Partner, NORTH
Board Member, Portland Advertising Federation

* With apologies to our more sensitive British readers.