As winner of last year’s first annual Saatchi & Saatchi/Playback First Cut Award, Spy Films director Pete Henderson received a trip to the Cannes International Advertising Festival in June and a spot on the Saatchi Showcase reel of new talent which unspooled at the prestigious event. Safely back on home turf, he offers these impressions of Cannes.

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Prior to my departure for Cannes, MacLaren McCann copywriter Mark Fitzgerald, who had been Cannes deflowered two years earlier, explained that by the end of my time I would want to find the guy who invented this festival and shake his hand.

Ten bucks for a beer (and generally served to you by a bastard) or a hundred bucks for a cab ride to the airport (generally driven by a bastard)Š Fitz was rightŠand I did shake the guy’s handŠ for five bucks. Bastard.

Cost aside, I must confess to having felt a wee bit nervous at the prospect of having my ass kicked at the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase. I was acutely aware of the ‘crap until proven not crap’ way viewers at the festival react to the inundation of commercials. The sound of thirteen hundred people whistling could be fairly unnerving I imagined.

I attempted to adopt a ‘Screw ’em’ attitude upon entering the Debussy Theatre in the case that this would be my plight. That lasted about 30 seconds and then I just started praying to God.

The lights dimmed and I was sixth in the order. Three new directors into the program and I had already witnessed the whistle gallery. It was brutal. Oddly humorous but nonetheless brutal.

It was my turnŠthe 90 seconds came and wentŠand the reaction was actually fairly positive.

It didn’t take much longer to figure out how this worked. It was the ideas and not necessarily the directors who were being pummeled.

The showcase ended and I could now relax. What resonated in my head, however, was this concept of ‘idea as king.’ With a history in music videos, I often fell prey to replacing a lack of an idea with what I considered to be interesting production, which usually wasn’t interesting for more than 10 seconds.

Things became clear and I would gauge the work that I saw here and Canada’s place in its grand scheme based on what I had always sort of suspectedŠ production for its own sake blows chunks.

Cannes realization number one: show me idea.

I was pleased to see how Canada showed. We’re actually pretty good. People seemed to actually dig the work. However, just do the math to figure out how good any country is. It’s easy. For every 15,000 people in a country, there are about three people who really belong and do good advertising. It isn’t a bad guide.

It was a drag to see how few Canadian spots were short listed though. Some real crap from other countries made it through. Maybe I just didn’t get it? Maybe it’s considered good in its country of origin?

Snap. Cannes realization number two: you win awards for being able to transcend language and cultural barriers that keep international judges from thinking ‘ŠI don’t get it, I can’t read another subtitle, my head is going to explode, next commercial.’

Cannes realization number three: people who pay tons of dough are still just cattle at Cannes.

Gala night d’es not mean my wife Kelly and I would walk up some red carpet alone to the big theater as the paparazzi snap away. It was a massive crush of 10,000 really pissed off people trying to get through a four-foot entrance. Memories of The Who in Cincinnati.

What was cool, however, was the Gold Lion win by Ogilvy & Mather’s Nancy Vonk and Janet Kestin for Timex Indiglo. After talking with them at the ‘Canadian party’ on the Friday night, it was difficult not to feel really pumped and to maintain any sense of ad bitterness. Way to go babies. In fact, what was perhaps the most fun was the camaraderie of the Canadian contingent. We all laughed our heads off at how lame everything was while getting hammered on the rooftop of the Hotel Cristal as the sun went down.

As stated, a one hundred dollar cab ride to the airport, one hundred and fifty with tip, and we would all be on our way home. I would never feel stupid about wearing sunglasses in a movie theater again.

I was asked to write a 750-word piece on my experience in Cannes. I’m at about 730. I like Cannes very very very very very much. It was really really really really nice. Thanks to Saatchi & Saatchi and to Playback for the gig.