CLOSE-UP: CRAFT/DIRECTOR'S CUT - Deputy creative director of TBWA London, Bil Bungay, on why he adores Cannes.(Brief Article)

This month's issue of Campaign Screen includes a feature on the June Lions Festival in Cannes. TBWA/London's deputy creative director, Bil Bungay, reveals what the man on La Croisette really thinks about advertising's week in the sun.

I love it. Cannes. But for all the wrong reasons.

I should love it for the role it plays in encouraging creatives and agencies to go back to their think-tanks with a renewed vigour. I should love it for the opportunity it gives us to exchange ideas with other ad men from other agencies from other cultures. I should love it because it is an unmissable, well-respected event in the ad world calendar. And to a certain degree I do.

However, the real reason I love Cannes is because of its charade.

There's the charade of all the industry elite backslapping their way down La Croisette on expenses. There's the charade of the ignorant, arrogant, monosyllabic local friggin' doormen - yes, I really love them and I include the event's own plastic, ball-gowned doorwomen into the bargain.

Then there's the charade of the awards event itself. (I'm not sure how many hours before the awards events you're supposed to turn up to get a seat in the main auditorium but I personally haven't succeeded in four years of trying, ending up in a refrigerated off-shoot basement sat on a folding plastic chair at right angles to a projection screen.)

Finally, there's the charade of the judging process.