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| Ad students make their annual pilgrimage to the Chip Shop Awards. |
Young hopefuls spent the last few days getting excited about the Chip Shop Awards, presented last night in London. Quick searches on Twitter revealed that young creatives all over the UK (and some older ones to boot) were waiting with baited breath to hear if they were to be one of the lucky ones to garner a coveted chip for their advertising efforts.
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| The winner of the Big Chip, by Stacey & Sareka @ Chemistry. Yes, it's a bag. |
The results were announced, probably amid lots of fanfare, booze and backslapping, which is customary of advertising shenanigans. Here is the winning entry above. Very simple and useful and really quite nice. You can see all the other winners here.
For those who are unfamiliar with the Awards, they've been doing the rounds since 2002, claiming to be the only gong-show that celebrates sheer creativity. It probably started out as a pure and unbridled exercise, eager and optimistic about how it was different from all the other big-hitters. Nowadays though, it’s arguably just as bloated and expensive as all the other award shows out there.
Some of the work is really good, brilliant even. Some of it is funny, some is dark, some is affecting, some is clever. But much of it suffers from a complete lack of boundaries which are generally mandatory in good advertising – a brief. Call me old fashioned, but I find it genuinely bizarre that advertising is rewarded when it hasn’t met a brief (I hope the planners stick up for me here...).
The whole point of advertising is that it is required to convey an effective message for the client. If it can do this with creativity then the adman has done a good job. I'd argue that a lot of the work submitted to the CSAs doesn't do this. After all, anyone with a crude idea can find a funny photo and stick a logo over the top of it, but if it doesn’t meet a brief then it’s just a bit of a giggle.
I’d be inclined to be much less of a whinge about the whole thing if the CSAs had a totally different perspective on the awards obsession in adland. But they don't really; I get the feeling that they’re the same moneymaking enterprise as all the rest of them.
They still have the swish and expensive ceremony, still charge zillions to submit entries, still stroke creatives’ egos, still have an incessant and unrelenting PR machine just like all the big guys. Where’s the celebration of difference?
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| The PR people choose paedo gag for distribution. Err. |
The work might be full of fart jokes and paedo references, but I find it strange that these kind of gags are considered the pinnacle of creativity and worth rewarding. Surely the ad industry is better than some offensive print ad? Surely?
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| A CD explains to me that I clearly have no sense of humour, totally don't get the Chip Shop Awards and look like complete danglebag. CDs are always right. |
I realise a lot of people will probably disagree with my opinion on the CSAs. Call me a stick in the mud, tell me I have no sense of humour, say that I’ve missed the point with the Chip Shops entirely. Maybe I have. Maybe I just don’t get it?
After all, Dave Trott says that “I think the purpose of The Chip Shop Awards is to take the piss. To take the piss out of how seriously advertising takes itself.”
He's usually right about things. After all, it's supposed to be a bit of fun and I need to lighten up. My next post is going to be REALLY POSITIVE.
After all, Dave Trott says that “I think the purpose of The Chip Shop Awards is to take the piss. To take the piss out of how seriously advertising takes itself.”
He's usually right about things. After all, it's supposed to be a bit of fun and I need to lighten up. My next post is going to be REALLY POSITIVE.
Don't worry about being negative the whole time. I gave up on positivity at my own blog years ago.
ReplyDeleteI suppose part of the point of the Chip Shops is to show the ideas that are self-censored because they meet an imagined brief but would never be approved. Imagine what we could do if clients were more liberated! (Is the subtext.)
With the more offensive ones, there's always the sense that people are endorsing them purely because they're 'edgy', or perhaps because they are afraid of not looking 'edgy' if they admit they don't actually like them.
French Connection's 'FCUK' campaign was pretty edgy. It put a misspelt rude word on thousands of billboards and magazines. I'm not sure our culture was enriched as a result, no matter how many shirts were sold.
I think the idea is great. Outside of London, you don’t always get to work on creative projects. Personally, I do a lot of financial services copy and much as I love it, I can’t always be as creative as I’d like - and the briefs I work on day-to-day definitely aren’t award-winners.
ReplyDeleteSo for me, it’s about doing the work you want to do, not the work you’re paid to do. It’s about doing something you love, just for fun. But let’s face it - no one likes to keep a good idea to themselves, and that’s where the Chip Shop Awards come in.
I won a couple of awards in 2009, including the ‘Sun does the Economist’ ad that inspired Dave Trot’s ‘take the piss’ comment. I’m proud of the work I entered and I have to confess, I was ridiculously happy when they won.
Having said that, I don’t like all the ideas that get through – and some of them make me cringe, particularly the ‘non-pc’ category. But hey, maybe that’s just personal taste?
I won a chip and a couple of vinegars a few years ago but haven't entered for ages. I think there was a definite shift in the awards when they went down to London - the ceremony I attended was at a real dive in Edinburgh, which added to the 'indie' feel. Now it's all very sleek and Londonish, which kinda detracts from the original point of the Chip Shops.
ReplyDeleteI've seen some brilliant work submitted over the years. But much of it is lost amongst the pieces with shock value and no real idea. The worst I remember was an image of Jesus on the cross, advertising No More Nails - an email viral that was doing the rounds long before that entry was accepted.
Thanks for your comments guys. I think where the Awards lose it for me is the crassness and moneygrabbing element mixed up with what is essentially a great idea.
ReplyDeleteI think rewarding creativity for its own sake should be applauded. Sometimes spec work needs to get a good airing and is deserving of praise, and this should be what the Chip Shops are about.
As much as we all like a good giggle now and again at all the stupid jokes and offensive content, I'm not sure that's what should be considered creative. Ad folk have the whole world to choose from - the sky's the limit creatively - and we end up with fart jokes. I think that's pretty depressing.
I think you're spot on, Ms Copywriter.
ReplyDeleteIf the Chip Shop Awards really are about "taking the piss out of the ad industry," as Mr Trott says, then why are they billed as "Creativity without limits" by the people who run the show? Those are two very different concepts.
And if the award winners really show the pinncacle of this unlimited creativity, then thank God for limits. Because many of the award winners are, frankly, based on really piss-poor jokes. And other ideas just don't quite work, if you think about them.
Take the Big Chip winner. It's a sorta nice idea, but executed in a way that simply wouldn't work. It's a canvas bag, so is clearly designed to be used time and time again. However, the copy on the Topshop side says: "Turn me inside out to save lives". So if I see some girl walking along using the bag, I think to myself what a selfish little bitch she is for not turning it inside out. Maybe it would work with some more carefully crafted copy, but the fact is that it wouldn't work as it stands.
I like the *idea* of the Chip Shop awards (if that idea is, in fact, "creativity without limits", and not simply to take the piss out of the industry). However, the fact that such dross wins some of the awards makes me question whether it's worth doing (besides as a fundraiser for Carnyx, the company behind it).
It's not enough to say we need an award ceremony for ads that were too X or too Y to run. Especially when you consider that half the awards out there are won by ads which ran maybe once or twice (or not at all, dare I say?).
"Half of the *proper* awards out there", I should have said.
ReplyDeleteThe thing I dislike about the Chip Shop awards is the cost of entry. Creativity without limits... apart from your wallet.
ReplyDelete