Cannes Lions Day Two: May the best nut win

Monday is a tough nut. I feel it in my bones. I have three meetings lined up, three press conferences to attend and four shortlist announcements to report.  Yipee. Remind me what I said about energy yesterday. No staying up at GB, tonight, I make a firm resolve.

Breakfast is one of the casualties of a hurried morning and I make a mental note to pick up a sandwich on the way. The press centre is pretty empty when I walk in and stays that way until the shortlists are out. Then its pandemonium until its time to head off for the press conferences on the third floor. The Young Lions awards are being announced on the third floor and I catch jury president David Lubars make a short speech about the winning entry. When he announces the winners, there is a short ten minute tribal dance among the people whose names have been called out. I watch as they hug, hug and hug some more before going up to David and picking up the prize and then they hug even more. Sweet.  It’s hard to be cynical when you see such unbridled PDA.

I spot O&M’s Kinu, LMG’s Lynn de Souza, Candid’s Atul Nath and Genesis’ Prema Sagar on their various expeditions to the judging cell. Bronze for India in Promo for Leo Burnett, and no metal in Direct, judges say that they feel Teach India was too templated against previous year’s Lead India campaign, although they said that the intention was laudable.

I catch up with JWT’s Tista Sen for a drink and dinner after session gets over. Shirty’s (Absolut Radio's G Sharath Chandra) two day break in Cannes is over and he is headed back to London. One less Indian in the small minority that exists for the daily trip to GB.  Tomorrow’s meetings are few so I am looking forward to some time in the seminar hall. And some well intentioned attention.