Ad veteran Paul Catmur releases new book ‘The Gutter Bar’, a sharp Cannes Lions satire skewering the industry’s wildest week
One of the industry’s most respected creative leaders Paul Catmur has released his long-anticipated novel The Gutter Bar, now available in paperback through Amazon. Named after the infamous Cannes Lions late-night hotspot, the book is a razor-sharp satire of the ad industry at its most glamorous, chaotic and unfiltered.
The former DDB NZ ECD and co-founder of Barnes, Catmur & Friends describes the book as a funny, occasionally dark and frequently revealing look at the industry he spent more than three decades working in: “Although it’s not meant to be a hatchet job on the industry that gave me a living, I would frequently be bemused by some of its absurdities. While the book is meant to be funny and revealing, my sense of humour may be a little darker than some.
“I worked in advertising for thirty-odd years and I met some wonderful people as colleagues, clients and hangers-on, many of whom I am lucky enough to still count as friends. However, wonderful people do not always make for the best stories, and in the book I have tended to focus on the rogues, loveable or not.
“The characters in the book are not exaggerated, they are condensed. Their traits are squashed down into bite-sized chunks and their behaviour becomes stronger to make a point. But they are based on real people or, in most cases, amalgams of them.
“Just about everything within the book about the industry I have experienced. The ambition, the duplicity, the manipulation, and, of course, the fun.”
Set entirely during Cannes Lions, The Gutter Bar follows fictional jury president Ben Putney, who should be at the pinnacle of his career. Instead, he’s barely holding it together as he navigates a collapsing marriage, a domineering father, feuding colleagues, jury politics, attempted seductions, and even a vagrant with suspiciously good strategic insight. There’s also a yoghurt campaign that seems just a little too perfect.
If you’ve ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes at Cannes, the curtain is now lifted. Pour yourself a glass of rosé, strap yourself in, and transport yourself back to the South of France for that crazy week in June.
The Gutter Bar is available now in paperback on Amazon. Make sure to order from your local Amazon site (NZ readers should use the Australian store).
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