I went to the Cannes Lions festivals this year.

The festival is different than it used to be. It’s now much more a networking/seminar week than an exhibition and celebration of the world’s advertising excellence.

Which is good, because it gives us the opportunity to listen to people like Spike Jonze, Ben Stiller, Mark Zuckerberg (who didn’t talk much, actually) and Jon Landau. But it’s also bad, because of the shortage of excellence in the work, shown and awarded, there.

Curiously, this year, the two most classical Grand Prix, Film and Press, were given to “traditional” ads.

For the first time in decades, a 30-second spot with almost no super-post-production and 3D effects won the Film Gran Prix: the Old Spice campaign.

You might remember of “Lamp” for Ikea, another simple “great idea+ great joke” spot.

But it used 60 seconds to tell it.

All the other GPs since the last decade were super productions in 60 seconds and more. And not only in Cannes.

About the Press Grand Prix, of course the great winner was the Billboard campaign, but the first choice of the jury was one single all-type ad for Scrabble.

Ok, it was later questioned – it had been submitted a couple of years ago – and then withdrawn of the competition. But, well, it was an all type ad getting there. No Photoshop tricks, no psychedelic 3D illustrations, just text on white paper.

So what does it mean? Are we going back to basics?

Come on, of course not.

The vast majority of the awarded ads and actions today are big and bold. Or look like it. And between us, many of them are a bit complicated, full of numbers and results that we would never know if they’re true.

Probably the story told in some of that cases are better than the ideas.

But that’s life. Or, at least, that’s advertising today.

One day we, the creatives, will be using another tricks or complaining about something else. And simple ideas will always be around, making the audience – and us – happy.

We never give up.

- Fabio Seidl