Banging The Drum for rolling out yet another awards do

foxy 414So, how’s the WFH going (week four)? Well, at least the weather is on the up, even though to go out in it I have to be extra careful not to stamp all over McKelvey’s carefully manicured garden. There’s a man with too much time on his hands…

Luckily, things are also looking up on the home front, too. McCawley and his brood have finally gone back to their house in “Printer Land” (otherwise known as North Kent), although not before they ate us out of house and home. I’ve never seen CHOCOLATE disappear quite so quickly.

Talking of which, is it just me or has anyone else noticed that all the Easter eggs are dirt cheap this year? I’ve already snapped up a dozen or so – that’s about two days’ rations – for less than a tenner. Every cloud has a silver lining and all that…

One cloud which has no silver lining, however, is the cancellation of the 2020 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

It’s not that I actually give a stuff that the Promenade de la Croisette won’t be hosting the advertising industry’s biggest annual love-in this year; it’s that our friends over at The Drum have jumped at the chance to launch yet another bloody industry awards do.

Yep, you read it here eventually; the Can Do Festival is a digital initiative that will run from June 15 to June 26 and “be a celebration of best marketing practice and amazing innovation, as well as a platform to highlight the can-do attitude at the heart of the industry”. [Groan.]

There’s more: “The online festival will play host to a series of keynote addresses, panel sessions, and round tables where online delegates will hear first-hand about how many leading brands and agencies are transforming their business models in the current climate.” [If there are any agencies left by then.]

The Drum‘s editor in chief Gordon Young gushed: “We want to recognise the emerging ideas and innovate thinking that is helping many navigate the current economic challenges. And it is not all doom and gloom out there. This industry is amazingly resilient, and its innovative thinking and creative thinking is a huge part of the story.”

In other words: “Look you lot, there’s no Cannes this year, so this is the perfect way to blow your own trumpet and keep your finance director happy. You won’t have to travel to the Cotes d’Azur and spunk a load of cash on expensive hotels and pricey bottles of D’Ott, let alone even more expensive out of court settlements with young agency staff who you have tried it on with.”

In other words (the real story): “Quick, we need another awards scheme because all the hundreds of others we run are being wiped out due to the coronavirus.”

Ah well, what do I care, I’ve got CHOCOLATE, four days off in a row and peace and quiet. Happy Easter!

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