So what were you doing last week? Dancing topless on a 200-foot yacht off the South of France? Rubbing elbows with some ECDs from South America? Bumping uglies with a random AD from Amsterdam?

Sounds awesome. Hope you took pictures.

Me? I was in the office, cranking out work like a mofo. Selling shit. Saving projects. You know, a typical week in advertising.

Now, I’ve come down on award shows before, and this post isn’t really about that. I actually think Cannes, out of all the shows, seems to honor some of our finest work as an industry. I’m personally dying to order up a Carlsberg Draught, so I can live in Slo Mo.

But sometimes we forget about the other 99% of the work we do that doesn’t win awards. Some may argue that’s simply because it isn’t very good. And that’s true for some (okay, a lot) of it. But much of what we do is critical to the success of our business, yet would never make it past the first sniff test for a show like Cannes.

So maybe it’s time for a new kind of award show. Something to honor the daily grind. Something to recognize those who take a project that’s spun out of control and manage to reel it back in and turn it into something the agency can be proud of. Something that rewards people for taking on the ‘crappy’ assignment and creating something awesome out of it.

The winner of the “best idea pulled out of his ass in the middle of a shitty presentation” is…

The best “buckslip that you didn’t immediately want to throw away” goes to…

And the “most artful job of talking a client off a ledge that just may have saved the business” goes to…

These are important accomplishments. These are the kinds of challenges we are faced with every day. When someone meets one of those challenges head on and does something incredible? They should be celebrated.

I’m picturing more of a down and dirty theme for the show. Something that fits the hard-working spirit of the awards. Maybe rent out an old steel mill and serve jungle juice out of old steel barrels.

I’m still struggling with the name of the actual award though. The One Show has The Pencil. Cannes has The Lion. We need something equally weighty for our show.

Any suggestions?

- TJ Bennett