Jung von Matt's Cannes Lions Wins Questioned

Adland wonders whether or not Jung von Matt padded their "Stones Telling Stories" case study which outlined Holocaust awareness work that ultimately won a Media Gold Lion and an Integrated Bronze Lion. Oh to have been a judge back in the day when Barbara Lippert said all you had to do was sit around and watch a bunch of TV commercials and decide which ones you liked as opposed to watching the hundreds of case study video judges have to slog through today.

According to Adland and her translation of a story in German Meedia.de, several inconsistencies in the claims made by Jung von Matt have been cited. Inconsistencies are said to include representations of work not yet complete, descriptions of Google Maps function that do not exist and information said to exist online that doesn't.

As creativity continues to move beyond the realm of the tv commercial, the radio commercial, the outdoor board or the magazine ad, judges will increasingly rely on these case study videos to judge work. And without in-depth research, they can only judge based on what they see in the video.

We're not really sure what the solution is, short of turning the Cannes Lions judging process into CIA-like investigation. We can only hope that agencies will be as honest and as forthright as they can when representing their work.

Everyone wants to win a Cannes Lion. But no one wants to have one taken away after the fact, an action that seems to increasingly happen on a yearly basis now.

Honesty is always the best policy. It might not always win you awards. But you'll sleep better at night and when you do win, it will have been 100 percent worth it.