Cannes Lions: Bob Garfield on Creativity, Being an Ad Critic + the Ad That First Inspired Him

Creatives young and old have had a love/hate relationship with Bob Garfield, who for the last 25 years has produced his “Ad Review” segment on Advertising Age. (His position on this? On a scale of one to five, few ads are total zeros and few ads are prize fives. Over his whole career the average ad has received about a 3.4, significantly higher than the average true quality of industry television advertising output at large.)

Ad bloggers, whether or not they agree with his arguments, arguably see him as the person who began what they continue today. He’s also the author of The Chaos Scenario and co-hosts National Public Radio’s “On the Media.”

I ran into Bob at the Carlton this weekend, then later Monday in front of the Palais, sporting a decidedly cannois summer hat. (I didn’t know at the time, but it was also his birthday.) He thoughtfully agreed to sit and talk at a nearby beachside restaurant — which we only later discovered is probably the loudest atmospheres in all the land.

So forgive the sound on this bad-boy. Click below to see the video, and read the rest of this piece over at Yahoo! Scene.