Toby Talbot’s Cannes Diary #2

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Mystery toothbrush.jpgToby Talbot, chief creative officer at Saatchi & Saatchi NZ, is representing New Zealand on the Cannes Radio + Audio Lions jury. Talbot, along with most of the other NZ and Australian jurors writes exclusively for CB.

One of the upsides of judging in Cannes is where you get to rest your weary head every night.

They tend to put the juries up in very nice hotels.

Well I can categorically say that ours is.

Having spent three days painstakingly getting to a shortlist, occasionally stumbling across some hidden gem only to find out that it ran once in the middle of the night on “Facebook” (note: the media plan is included with the ad when you judge now) the emotional turmoil of it all means the plump feathery pillows of my well-appointed room do come as a welcome relief at the end of every day.

And so it has been against the run of play at the newly refurbished Hotel Martinez, that certain members of the jury have fallen foul to what has become known as ‘toothbrush gate’.

This toothbrush greeted me when I got back to my room yesterday.

It had certainly seen a lot of action. Witness those worn-down bristles. What kind of action, I wasn’t entirely sure.

But it’s close proximity to the toilet concerned me.

I complained to the immaculate man at the front desk who sent a fruit basket and publicly flogged one of the staff to appease me (I told him the fruit basket was a completely unnecessary gesture).

Sharing the sordid episode with my jurors, it turns out that some of them have also either lost or gained toothbrushes.

And upon seeing a picture of the evidence, it turns out this toothbrush belongs to one of my fellow jurors, Hugo Delgado, who lost his faithful friend two days ago.

It’s a little unsettling and suffice to say, each juror’s room safe has become the go to spot for their toothbrushes now.

I am tempted to suggest the good people of the Hyatt, instead of spending many hours rearranging Lamborghinis out front, get down to more important business like investing in some proper toilet brushes.

Moving on to other matters than the thought of fecal matter, my jury has been great.

They come from all over: South Africa (a hotbed of great radio writing for many years), Spain, Germany, the States, the UK, Brasil, Peru and Canada. And of course, little old New Zil.

The effervescent Jo McCrostie has been a fine Jury President and the last two days, the business end of the judging, will no doubt prove that being ask to judge at Cannes with such a diverse and clever bunch of people is indeed a great honour.

What they lack in toothbrushes these people make up for in so many other ways.