If this year’s Cannes Festival taught us anything, it’s that case study awards show entries often look and smell a whole lot like bullshit. You know: the ads that never actually ran; the apps that never worked; the creative directors who did no real work in coming up with the idea that scored their agencies a gold. We’re not naming any names, but even David Lubars admits that this kind of stuff happens all the time.

The Effies are in on that not-quite joke, and New York’s Walrus manages to have some fun with the concept in a new campaign promoting this year’s event. The first spot “Logos” plays on the “received coverage in X, Y, and Z” section of every case study video in which the agency brags about how many overextended bloggers looked at their PR pitches and said, “Content!!”

You might notice a certain weblog’s logo on the left side of this gentleman’s screen…but no BuzzFeed. SAD.

The next spot, “Sales,” reaffirms the common suspicion that the numbers you see included in those case studies often mean little or nothing. But isn’t this kind of like the common struggle to prove that impressions translate to money being exchanged for goods/services, or that advertising actually works in the first place?



Ooh, that was good spin. We like.

Next comes one of those projects that is so filled with good vibes and positivity for the human race that you might just explode thinking about how awesome it is, or at least act like a smug douche for coming up with the idea that you probably stole from a 1997 OOH campaign even though you can’t remember which agency made it.



Finally, “over the shoulder impressions” sounds so close to believable that we could swear we’ve read it in a past media campaign blurb.



For some reason, we were once surprised to learn that many agencies hire people whose entire job consists of submitting stuff to awards shows. We were so naive on that day 9 months ago.

Effies season is upon us. Send them your work.

CREDITS

Client: Effie Worldwide, Inc./North American Effie Awards

Agency: Walrus

Chief Creative Officer: Deacon Webster

Art Director: Evan Vosburgh

Head of Integrated Production: Valerie Hope

Production Company: Whiteboard Pictures

Producer: Jonathan Yaniv

Director: Jacob Sillman

First Assistant Director: Nadia Fedchin

Director of Photography: Christopher Parente

First Assistant Camera: Cameron Femino

Gaffer: Forest Erwin

Grip: Justin Chen

Sound Mixer: Chris Scott

Art Director: Cory Nicholas

Hair & Makeup: Lani Barry

Production Assistant: Liz Bendelac

Production Assistant: Megan Brittan

Production Assistant: Mark Stepanov

Casting: Whiteboard Pictures

Actors: Anthony Michael Lopez, Rikki-Lee Millbank, Marc Levasseur, Morné Vogel, Carmen Mendoza, Andrew Colford, Mike Holt

Voiceover Artist: Kevin Cummings

Voiceover Casting: Carrie Faverty, The Sound Lounge

Locations donated by: Red Fuse Communications and The Sound Lounge

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