Amir Kassaei, CCO de DDB Worldwide
The CCO for DDB Worldwide, Amir Kassaei, advocates the thesis that advertising awards have no importance and feels they have a negative impact on the industry. Therefore, he started a campaign titled The End of False Recognitions, which he launched with a statement. In the piece, Kassaei writes that DDB offices worldwide will send increasingly less work to Cannes and similar events. He also mentions that DDB has won more Grand Prix at Cannes than any other network on the planet. But the real aim of the communicate is to invite other actors of the industry to discuss some of the most important values of advertising. “Too many of us in the industry have bought into the idea that winning awards is proof of creative effectiveness, so much so that were willing to sacrifice our integrity to get them. And in turn that has lessened the integrity of the awards themselves” explains Kassaei. “If we are coming up with social ideas that pretend to solve the worlds biggest problems or help disenfranchised people, but, in fact, are only being done to win an award, we are cynical and perhaps even criminal.”The CCO´s conclusion is that agencies must focus on serving clients instead of promoting themselves.
