Effies Promotion Weeds Out Bullshit With Polygraph Tests

To hammer home the point The Effies are all about results and not Festival of Creativity-style Cannes Lions which honor work just because its creative, New Zealand agency Whybin\TBWA created a series of videos in which three New Zealand creative directors undergo polygraph tests. The work is part of the Results Don't Lie campaign for the New Zealand Effies.

Participating in the videos are Y&R ECD Josh Moore, Colenso BBDO ECD Steve Cochran and M&C Saatchi ECD Dave King among others. In each video, the participants are asked several routine life questions and then questions about their work and the Effies specifically.

Of the genesis behind the campaign, Whybib\TBWA CCO Toby Talbot said,"Blame it on the increased importance of the two minute awards video. Blame it on scam ads. Blame it on the myriad categories at Cannes. Whatever the reason, hype and puffery has crept into so many creative award entries that the truth can become a little, how can I put it, distorted at times. The Effies, in contrast, is impervious to hyperbole because it relies so much on hard facts, data and concrete results. And results, as they say, don't lie."

There will be eight videos in all with an initial three released today. All the videos will be housed at ResultsDontLie.co.nz.

As part of the campaign, which will release videos leading up to the night of the awards, the polygraph examiner who conducted the video interviews, Gavin Wilson, will appear onstage during the awards and tests some of New Zealand's biggest names in advertising live.

Intro: