Mark Wnek's awards rant

1696774 — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 17:18:00 GMT

On the back of Adweek giving R/GA digital Agency of the Year Mark Wnek wrote a drug like rant about the whole awards system and it being bullshit.

I have to say I know a lot of people don't like him (don't really know why, or care, little before my time) but I think he's spot on. I have cut and pasted the full text from Brian Morrissey's blog, which is very good for those of you wanting to know what's going on in the US digital scene. I haven't changed the formatting at all. I think a good narcesque fueled peice of prose should just come as it is...

"I have flu and am bored so here's a feverish rant for you: there is a big problem with the (Anglo-?) American/capitalist need for winners and losers. Somewhere along the line advertising got ensnared in the Oscars/Hall of Fame mentality of ostentatiously awarding skin-deep flashiness as opposed to true, largely unsung fundamental business-affecting performance. Most of the conversations I have with anybody connected to the so-called creative community in ad agencies come around to awards or award-winning work at some point. It has come to the point where agencies at the very least equally develop work for the consideration of advertising juries as for clients and consumers.

"There are creative people in the ad industry who are famous. Are there any famous people in other trades like building or plumbing? The digital community hasn't grown out of this utter bullshit. The digital community has grown up via solving genuine business problems and has an undiluted dedication to creating concrete, game-changing and lasting platforms and connections. Frankly, the medium is irrelevant. The only thing that is relevant is coming up with the right solution at the right time in the right way while being beholden to nothing - BUT NOTHING - but the business/communications/consumer/reputational challenge the paying client is struggling with.

"Such solutions are most often unglamorous. Particularly in the short term - which is why all the best digital people use the word 'lasting' a lot. The great thing about Bob G and R/GA is not Nike Plus. Nike Plus is just a natural outcome of a company that has been thinking deeply and unostentatiously about helping clients with their business for years rather than playing to the crowd (something which, by the way, Crispin were also doing for years before anybody was even talking about them). As a grown-up I would LOVE to see agencies honored for genuinely thinking about (if not feeling for) their clients and their problems rather than being good at promoting themselves via awards junkets.

"Olive Garden (yes, Olive Garden) has a positioning which, as you know, is 'when you're here, you're family'. I don't see anyone jumping up and down and claiming credit for that. It's not Nike, of course. But Olive Garden has had 54 uninterrupted quarters of growth. 54. Clearly there's a business situation at work and a whole collection of supplier (yep, that's what we are, suppliers, not superstars) relationships that is well and truly working. So what I would dearly like to see someone have the balls to do is to have one Agency of the Year and reveal the whole range of complex, unsung, lasting, bottom-line affecting ideas and behaviors - strategic, technological or otherwise - that it brought to bear. Man these antibiotics are weird."

You go Mark. I'll try to remember that while I judge some awards this week.

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Mark Wnek's awards rant