Better... there is hope

I have just come back from judging cases at the Olimpiadele Comunicarii with a smile on my face.

Finally, someone got the message, finally it seems the bludgeoning and foaming at the mouth some of us do pays off. Last year OC was a downer - I left feeling disheartened and thinking that maybe there was no hope for advertising after all. Few ideas and even less creative ideas - lots of buzz words, misused, abused and mispronounced. No common sense - no desire to solve problems, to take the time to internalize the heavy burden which is a "communication brief" and treat it with the respectful intelligence it deserves.

But today was different - not for all teams but for a lot of them. Problem solving was high on the agenda and most of the presentations were actual communication or idea solutions. Thinking had happened, brain power had been utilized. True, little executional power - not a lot of drawing going on, nor much care taken for copy to be finely tuned, BUT STILL there was hope because thinking had happened.

I am expecting some "permission to divulge" from the organizers, but I look fwd to writing about some of the better ideas I have heard. Because there were some. Actually more than expected and I feel so much better for it.

Good work you guys!