John Mescall
- Jury President
TV/Cinema/Online Film
Global ECD
McCann Worldgroup
Comments
Joy, closely followed by envy. When I feel that, I know I’m looking at a piece of advertising worthy of being awarded. So that was the bar we set for ourselves over the course of five days judging.
And joy there was. Laughter too. Some pieces of film made us tear up a little. There was wonderful storytelling and brilliant craft. And a few endings that we didn’t see coming (not easy to do).
There was a lot of funny; use of humor was a particularly strong category and for that we were glad. Five days is a long time to spend otherwise.
The pattern of judging followed an eerily familiar format: when building the shortlist you’re burying far more often than you’re praising. There’s a negative energy to this: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, yes, no. It’s hard, but necessary work.
But come the metal rounds, joy was in abundance. It’s a genuine pleasure and a privilege to discuss and debate such quality work. We all know the efforts, the inspiration, the graft, the passion and the secret deals with the devil that are involved to make work worthy of winning at LIA.
To every winner and finalist, thank you. You reminded us all just how good our profession can be. Nothing made the book that we didn’t hold in very high regard.
To my Jury, you were not only world class but you had all the class in the world. Your opinions were strong and intelligent, and your motivations pure. I’m proud of you, and proud of the body of work we honored.
We debated for hours over the Grand LIA, until finally settling on the utterly wonderful Monty’s Christmas for John Lewis. This film has a beautiful heart, is sweet but never saccharine, and tells a magical story with brilliant craft.
But it’s not only a wonderful piece of advertising. As much as the quality of the film, the context in which it lives, elevated it to Grand LIA status. John Lewis has such a pedigree when it comes to its Christmas campaigns, the entire country is waiting for the next one. It’s an event. And expectations are high. Get this brief and there’s nowhere to hide; 60 million Brits and pretty much everyone in advertising is tuning in. This is no free hit.
Monty’s Christmas wasn’t just a piece of advertising. It became a part of the story of Christmas in the UK. And that’s a pretty Grand achievement.
Finally, I’d like to thank Barbara and Wayne and the entire team for looking after us, and orchestrating a judging process that gave us all the time we needed to properly and thoughtfully give every single piece of work the respect it deserved. We never felt rushed, and we never felt pressured. At LIA the work (and getting to the very best work) is everything. LIA, as always, was a joy.
Joy, closely followed by envy. When I feel that, I know I’m looking at a piece of advertising worthy of being awarded. So that was the bar we set for ourselves over the course of five days judging.
And joy there was. Laughter too. Some pieces of film made us tear up a little. There was wonderful storytelling and brilliant craft. And a few endings that we didn’t see coming (not easy to do).
There was a lot of funny; use of humor was a particularly strong category and for that we were glad. Five days is a long time to spend otherwise.
The pattern of judging followed an eerily familiar format: when building the shortlist you’re burying far more often than you’re praising. There’s a negative energy to this: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, yes, no. It’s hard, but necessary work.
But come the metal rounds, joy was in abundance. It’s a genuine pleasure and a privilege to discuss and debate such quality work. We all know the efforts, the inspiration, the graft, the passion and the secret deals with the devil that are involved to make work worthy of winning at LIA.
To every winner and finalist, thank you. You reminded us all just how good our profession can be. Nothing made the book that we didn’t hold in very high regard.
To my Jury, you were not only world class but you had all the class in the world. Your opinions were strong and intelligent, and your motivations pure. I’m proud of you, and proud of the body of work we honored.
We debated for hours over the Grand LIA, until finally settling on the utterly wonderful Monty’s Christmas for John Lewis. This film has a beautiful heart, is sweet but never saccharine, and tells a magical story with brilliant craft.
But it’s not only a wonderful piece of advertising. As much as the quality of the film, the context in which it lives, elevated it to Grand LIA status. John Lewis has such a pedigree when it comes to its Christmas campaigns, the entire country is waiting for the next one. It’s an event. And expectations are high. Get this brief and there’s nowhere to hide; 60 million Brits and pretty much everyone in advertising is tuning in. This is no free hit.
Monty’s Christmas wasn’t just a piece of advertising. It became a part of the story of Christmas in the UK. And that’s a pretty Grand achievement.
Finally, I’d like to thank Barbara and Wayne and the entire team for looking after us, and orchestrating a judging process that gave us all the time we needed to properly and thoughtfully give every single piece of work the respect it deserved. We never felt rushed, and we never felt pressured. At LIA the work (and getting to the very best work) is everything. LIA, as always, was a joy.