BEN COULSON’S D&AD DAIRY PART 2 – THE SPANISH INQUISITION
Ben Coulson, ANZ Chief Creative Officer at Dentsu, was president of the Creative Commerce Jury at this year’s D&AD Awards. In Part 2 of his D&AD Diary, exclusive to Campaign Brief, Coulson examines what it takes to win a Black Pencil, thumb screws in hand.
We are five hours into interrogating the three ideas that remain, after a week of probing the 30,000+ ideas that were entered into D&AD this year.
0.01% of the work has been able to hold out against an inquisition Torquemada would be proud of.
This is the Black Pencil jury, and its aim is to root out any kind of heresy in a piece of work.
To be considered, the work has already won the iconic Yellow Pencil. So it has to be perfect, in both idea and execution. To win Black it has to do more. It has to be revolutionary.
In the briefing we are shown work like Cadbury Gorilla, Volvo’s Epic Split, and the IPhone – yeah the first one, the one that forever changed the way the world communicates. This is the standard.
I’m starting to think that, like the Spanish Inquisition, D&AD judging charges you with a good dose of fanaticism.
And like Torquemada, I’m getting a bit of a kick out of it. It’s actually fun being this cruel.
There’s a French judge who has been pacing about in the hall for over an hour, while the jury takes the thumb screws and boiling oil to his work.
Imagine what he’s feeling about the consequence of this moment- not knowing if he and his agency will be holding a black pencil when this is done.
The longer this goes on, the more I can see his composure cracking through the window. This really is terrible, torturous, fun.
When he’s allowed back in, he does an amazing job of staying composed, as the third recount sees it fall just short.
I was asked not to name any work, so I’ll just say that this piece is the one I voted for.
It was a remarkable moment for a brand to do something that captured the world’s attention, in a beautifully sophisticated and totally new way. A rare moment in time brilliantly seized. I hadn’t seen it before, and I’ll never forget it.
But even after hours of debate, votes and re-votes, it didn’t quite win the majority of jurors needed to get it over the line.
So we left without awarding a Black Pencil.
I’ve judged a lot of award shows, but none like this. No other show requires you to ruthlessly and repeatedly torture ideas. When it’s over, only those without sin survive.
This is why D&AD, like the Spanish Inquisition, isn’t a place you want to be if you’re hiding a secret.