IS D&AD STILL BIASED TOWARDS THE POMS? YOU DECIDE
Looking through the list of D&AD In Book, one cannot help notice the massive bias towards the Poms. Compared to other international shows - Cannes, The One Show and Cio - where the UK consistently gets less than 20 percent of the winners and finalists, at D&AD this percentage is over 50 percent (79 Nominations out of world total of 151), and 257 In Book out of a world total of 564, a statistical impossibility if the judging was fair.
Despite opening up the juries to the world a couple of years ago, each jury at D&AD is still dominated by English creatives and this has got to change if D&AD is to lose this strong suspicion of bias. Otherwise, the world's ad agencies would be wise to direct their award funds to the other shows.
COUNTRY LEAGUE TABLE AT D&AD
1. UK - 79 Nominations, 257 In Book
2. USA - 26 Nominations, 78 In Book
3. Germany - 11 Nominations, 42 In Book
4. South Africa - 5 Nominations, 12 In Book
5. Japan - 4 Nominations, 25 In Book
6. Singapore - 3 Nominations, 24 In Book
7. Brazil - 4 Nominations, 8 In Book
8. Australia - 16 In Book
9. Malaysia - 1 Nomination, 11 In Book
10. New Zealand - 2 Nominations, 7 In Book
10. Sweden - 2 Nominations, 7 In Book
12. Thailand - 1 Nomination, 7 In Book
12. India - 1 Nomination, 7 In Book
12. Spain - 1 Nomination, 7 In Book
12. France - 9 In Book
posted by CB @ 7:30 AM
37 Comments:
before we all cry, maybe we should see the work first. They could just be doing better ads
Is good advertising biased towards the poms? I think so.
Lynchy,
Your constant harping about this matched with your jingoism is tiresome.
Who cares?
Of course the last two comments are from poms. Of course D&AD is biased. Look on Campaign and you'll see they are all bleating on about there already being too many foreign judges. Let's be honest. D&AD should do away with their token representation from non-UK judges and the rest of us should concentrate on entering shows where there every piece has an equal shot.
And Campaign Brief's creative coverage isn't biased towards Aussies? hmmmm..... come on.
Maybe they're better than us or we're just not up to scratch?
Course it's bloody biased, a few token judges from round the world won't change that. But like other award shows it's also biased to a few pommy agencies. the old boys network of judges even take bribes to ensure that work gets up. Fookin pathetic
Let's face it. Over the past year there just haven't been that many great ads coming out of australia (which is evident by the low standard of creative work that often graces this blog).
Shouldn't we try to address this problem instead of crying into our bacardi breezers? I thought the poms were supposed to be the whingers?
For god's sake come around here kiddies and I'll pat you all on the back. Stop reading blogspots and think about your current scripts a little more. Could we please have another story about D&AD please.
I'd say about a third of the people working in the industry here are Poms anyway, so it's a bit of a moot point.
Question: Why is this award show more highly valued than local shows (or is it?) And why do people actually care?
Surely being able to understand an entry in its local context is more important than surface gloss? How can an OS judge understand the intracies of the local market.
Of course it is biased, but people who enter should really be aware of this - what else would you expect?
I think the sad thing is that local Australian media seem to give OS shows more prestige than local ones.
I've got a pencil, I work in an Australian agency and I'm a pom.
Does this help?
more pommy bashing i say.
Maybe the English just do better fucking ads.
Christ. Watch Australian TV.
Stuff D&AD enter the Guam Advertising Awards. The local Guamians (is that what you call them?) aren't very good for a start. And the wards are cocnuts. Gold silver and bronze they look way better than those silly pencils. Hey, how come in an industry that is all about creativity the D&AD One Show and Award statues all look the same? Win a Guamy, it'll look great in your agency reception area
HAS ANYONE GOT A 2005 D+AD ANNUAL THEY WOULD LIKE TO SELL?
CREATIVEFIKKER@HOTMAIL.COM
OF COURSE THE POMS DO THE BEST ADS. WE DO THE BEST OTHER STUFF THO.
10.17 THANK YOU.
jesus lynchy,
Ads like Boony from GPYR and the Jason D stuff from Glue weren't good - they were exceptional. That's why they were in the book and picked up a couple of pencils.
Unfortunately a "good" uk ad is better than a "good" Oz.
When more people do excellent work like the above, then D&AD opens its doors.
The more important question is 'Is are MADC finalists biased to the poms?'
Anyone got the list from last night?
It will be interesting to see if "the poms" are awarded for such high profile clients like Sydney Writers' Festival.
Am totally bored with the back slapping for scam. Anyone else?
Spic
Yes it's probably biased and yes it still has the best work in it. Last year some great work from oz got in but this year there wasn't any up to scratch. Except of course our work which was just a terrible oversight.
The OneShow finalists have just been announced. The poms didn't enjoy quite the same domination they did in D&AD. So for those of you who have put down the domination at D&AD to the fact that the poms actually do better work, hopefully this will show that it's simply nepotism and an inability to embrace the work of other cultures.
If the D&AD book was full of the current Australian work, I'd be worried.
Hmmm, guess the OneShow is biased against Australia too since next to nothing got up there...
couldn't be about the work.
TBWA Chiat Day New York is the most nominated agency at D&AD this year with 9 Gold Pencil Nominations. I really doubt a Pommy biased jury would let the Amercians do so well.
Here's a thought: Is D&AD biased against low budgets?
Given that the Yanks and Poms usually get an extra zero against their budgets compared to the Aussies and Kiwis, could this be the (general) difference? (And yes, I know there are a couple of spectacular exceptions ... but only a couple.)
I'm going to find an English cricketing blog and see if they complain about how we keep winning the cricket.
We aren't the best at EVERYTHING!
12.15pm.
At leat one of the One Show finalists was written by a Pom in Residence. Chances are most of the others were too. You guys just like swearing and shouting too much for the international judges.
It's a fucking english award show. Is AWARD sydney biased? You bet.
Of course, otherwise it would all be asian scam ads winning or NZ scams . . .. Oh.
Stick to cricket and swimming. Leave the creative stuff like advertising and comedy to English folk.
If Singos entered their work in awards like D and AD, Australia's presence would increase hugely.
C'MON LYNCHY, C'MON EVERYONE, LET'S START A PETITION TO GET WORK DONE BY SINGOS IN D&AD!!!!!
Could it be the fact that we have sun and beautiful women over here to keep us otherwise occupied from going beserkers over that coupon brief?
Via email....
Having sat (or stood) on the hotly contested Print jury last year, then stood (actually sat) as Foreman on Radio this year, I guess I have a fair perspective on whether D&AD is ultimately a UK biased book. I think the point for me is not what the UK/World ratio is on the juries, but more the confidence and strength of voice of those collectively involved. My point? It's not a numbers thing; which is how it's being viewed at the moment. When I judged print, there was a strongly critical (in my opinion very negative) voice that continuously bubbled
up from a small, but significant, UK clique. It was rarely constructive, often grumbly, and resulted in a very anorexic wall of finalists on the last day.
Marcello Serpa did his utmost to keep the
debate positive, but "the voice" was unrelenting, and ultimately a lot of very strong, global work suffered.
I think there's a often a sense from overseas jurors that they're on UK turf for D&AD as "guests", not fellow colleagues. This has nothing to do with the D&AD body, who I think has gone to immense lengths to globalise the atmosphere, but more to do with many overseas jurors' own insecurity. I've seen overseas jurors whisper a fantastic point from the back of the jury pack (often not in their first language), only to get talked over by an over-confident local UK judge who demonstrates all the arrogant swagger of a bloke who's just popped next door to judge on his way to the local for a swift pint. I STRESS, THIS ISN'T THE CASE WITH ALL UK JUDGES, many of whom display a generosity and sensitivity to the challenges of their new colleagues battle with jet-lag (the effect
of which can never be underestinated when it comes to strength of voice on a jury!) and invariable struggle with language.
Conversely, when I oversaw the Radio jury this year, the atmosphere was lighthearted and the debate robust and fair. Everyone's voice was
clearly heard, and the final selection represents, in my opinion as the Foreman, a genuinely rounded, global perspective.
So what's the conclusion? Well, for me, I still comes down to equal voices, not just equal numbers, and that's as much our local overseas
responsibility as anyone's. Personally, I love the fact that the D&AD book is a complete bugger to get into. I guess the point is that it has to be an equal struggle for everyone, and that means taking a brave pill and standing up to the Poms if you're lucky enough to get a nod on the jury.
Whinging Aussies? That's a new one!
Looking at The One Show finalist list, the "home team" USA has around 30 percent (160 finalists) with the rest of the world a healthy 70 percent (360 finalists), despite US creatives dominating the juries. The UK has around 7 percent of the finalist list with 27 finalists - only a little ahead of NZ (21 finalists) and Australia (17 finalists). In future, I'd put my entry fees into The One Show rather than D&AD.
Nobby, why was Radio so tough this year - in the whole world only 3 Nominations and 8 In Book?
Nobby...u have been quite outspoken and domineering in the jury room.
of course its biased...look vanuatu and nauru didnt get a single nomination...sob sob. And even maldives didnt get a nomination for packaging. :D
biased all the way
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