A tone of ‘woe is us’ pervades the opening of nearly all of the essays submitted to us by members of the Bessies judging panel. Playback had solicited these essays – reflecting on the quality of spots submitted to the Bessies, one of Canada’s most celebrated advertising awards shows – in an effort to get a fix on the judges’ impressions of the quality of commercial work. Almost all of them seemed discouraged by the sameness or gimmickry or absence of original ideas in many of the spots, only to be relieved to find, eventually, the entries did include some real gems.

Often, the judges blamed client conservatism and wariness borne of the recession as key factors contributing to bland spots. This seems a logical conclusion to draw, but it in turn begs the question of why the larger, multinational clients would need to continue supporting a Canadian advertising industry, and by extension, a domestic commercial production industry, if much of the work is doing little to sell the product.

Sighing and bemoaning the quality of Canadian ads has been heard before but it’s been coming in droves of late, with Euro-ads being touted as the standard. It’s a shame, since it’s not inherently true that other countries produce better advertising. On a recent visit to France for the mip-tv program market, one Playback writer had occasion to catch a fair bit of primetime tv and two features, none of which showcased any spots of ‘Cannes reel’ caliber. Our writer saw nothing to write home about in fact, even though French audiences get to see many more cinema ads pre-feature than we do in Canada.

Two possible remedies suggest themselves. Either a) ad agencies have to find a way to conceive, propose, and then sell creatively daring material to their clients – thus hopefully reminding them that Canadians can put the substance before the style and can do very well, thank you very much, without having to import ads from Madison Avenue; or b) advertising has to accept a redefined role in a world in which fragmentation is cutting audience size, in which infomercials are on the rise as a vehicle for sponsorship and direct selling, in which American agencies (and clients) are consolidating business south of the border.

At production houses in Canada, the aim these days among mid-sized shops is to try to build a decent base by winning their share of Canadian jobs (with or without Canadian directors!), all the while attacking the u.s. market. More than ever, the proprietors and directors at these shops are finding it cool or permissible to admit that they have long-format gigs going on the side to help them make a living. Still, regardless of the mounting case against staying strictly in commercial production, some shops have raised the banner for the form and vow to continue to hold it high. One case in point is the trio of The Partners’ Film Company partners (soon to be ex-partners) who objected so fundamentally to a proposal to align Partners’ resources directly with television production that they are in the process of setting up their own spot production shop.

It’s a tough question – what will the future hold for those who stay single-mindedly loyal to the fickle world of advertising?