Costa Rica and pizza pops. Sleek cars and couriers. The Canadian west coast, motoroil, and underwear.

An eclectic mix of categories were the subject of this year’s Bessie award winners. Palm trees and beaches may have the cinematic goods on `za pops; ‘Duel’ is more a director’s challenge than ‘Stuck,’ but all spots were created equal in the eyes of the Bessie judges eyeballing the directing and cinematography awards.

Tom Nelson of Ammirati & Puris/Lintas says although the awards were screened by category, criteria was the idea behind the individual spots rather than the category. ‘We tried to separate the product out and focus on the quality of work.

‘We agreed that we wanted to reward ideas first. And even though there were a lot of impressive executions, if there wasn’t anything in the way of thought, concept or idea, we tried not to have it in the show.’

The focus on idea also, tends to make the debates amongst judges a little livelier, says Riddoch. ‘There’s some subjectiveness to it, and that’s why the judging is done with a lot of people. There’s no science to it, you have a point of view and you have to defend it.’

‘You’re supposed to go in and represent your own agenda. It’s really your personal belief of what’s good advertising and what’s not good advertising. But that’s why you’re chosen, and that’s what makes it fun.’

Nelson, a veteran of last year’s judging panel as well, says the quality and quantity of the work submitted this year was up, including in the traditionally strong categories of cars and beer. In fact, Nelson feels there were lots of spots worthy of international recognition this year.

‘People should be sending more of their work to more shows outside Canada. There were some really good potential international candidates this year.’

Brad Riddoch of Bates Canada, another judge, agrees that the ideas and executions he saw this year were world-class.

‘In this country, the execution of everything is so good that we have to go beyond that and look at the ideas.’