He talked a lot about American culture and values, and at one point he said something that really intrigued me: America’s only one true export is African-American music. I’ve never thought about it in those terms before but he’s completely right. It’s kind of like I was saying in my post yesterday – there’s so much American music here because that’s what we do really well, it’s something we can give to the world that could only have been produced in America and that isn’t simply a re-make of something done by another culture. Since I’m kind of a music junkie, this whole train of thought makes me proud, in a strange way. I’m glad that, as David said, if America were wiped off the face of the earth, blues, rock and roll and jazz would remain, rather than any other aspect of American (consumer) culture. He also talked about how urban America is the real America, and that political rhetoric focusing on “small town values” is bogus. This is something I’ve thought for a long time and it was nice to hear him voice this opinion so well, especially considering that I’ve been listening to all this advertising shop talk for the past few days. Hearing about advertising is fun, but in my everyday life I’m much more apt to talk about politics or contemporary morality than I am to talk about branding, so David’s chat was refreshing.
He also said, pretty blatantly, that the work he does could not co-exist with advertising. I think this is right and that there really are things that should remain untouched by advertising. If you’re trying to talk about things that matter, in the way The Wire does, it’s incongruous and slightly disgusting to be interrupted by a glorified sales pitch. That’s a harsh way to put it, I know, but it’s true. Another thing David talked about was the fact that unrestrained capitalism must be muted by what’s best for society, and that capitalism should be simply a tool rather than a framework for society. He said, “America doesn’t plant olive trees,” which is why we’re in such a mess now – if the only focus is short-term profit, things will eventually and inevitably fall apart. This stuff is a bit self-evident but, again, it was nice to hear it voiced in this particular environment. In closing David told us his 11 words for Esquire, which was really cool because I read that article not long before I flew out of the States and I remember his standing out to me, perhaps because of its somehow appropriate use of profanity: “Fuck the money. Leave the world better than you found it.”
Later this afternoon we met with Allison Arden, publisher of Advertising Age. It was a good chat in which she pretty much just talked to us about starting out in the industry and what kinds of things are becoming important in the industry today. After that I went back to Juan-les-Pins for a couple hours to take a short break before the awards show tonight. Earlier this morning I tweeted about losing my iPhone in hopes that someone from the festival would see it and return the phone to me, and while that didn’t quite work, something good definitely came of it. Nokia, who sponsored the party last night, saw my tweet and then tweeted this back at me:
I was flabbergasted. I picked the phone up right before the awards show and it is so cool, one of the best smartphones I’ve ever used. I couldn’t believe how nice Nokia was for doing that! Talk about good customer relations. The awards show was really impressive, which was to be expected. Advertising really is a terribly glamorous industry. Last night’s awards were for design, press and cyber. The design category was very cool and included a lot of packaging-type work, which I’m interested in. Press was a bit disappointing as the jury handed out very few golds, but you’ll hear more about that later since one of my assignments for class is to do a written and oral report on the press award winners. A few very good campaigns won for cyber, including Arcade Fire’s video for “We Used to Wait,” which I was obsessed with when it first came out. The video uses Google Maps to create a really cool interactive experience while you’re watching it, and the first time I saw it I cried, if that tells you anything about its effectiveness. Arcade Fire is one of my top five bands right now so it was cool to see their work featured in a Grand Prix-winning campaign. After the awards show everyone else went to the Microsoft Advertising beach party, but I decided to catch the last train back to Juan-les-Pins and go to bed. I hated to miss the party but I really just need to get some rest tonight. I don’t want to end up sick for the remainder of my time here. And on that note, I’m going to bed.
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