Sandra King, sales and marketing manager for Fairfax Media Group, the official media partner of the Cannes Lions, says the selected jurors represent the country’s leading talent.

“These New Zealand representatives will join an exclusive team of international industry heavyweights to determine the advertising campaigns that will be named the best in the world at Cannes in June. The selection process involves choosing the best in the business while weighing up a fair cross-section of representatives from agency groups and regions.”

And the selected jurors are:

MEDIA LIONS JURY: Barry Williamson, media director – Mediaedge:cia

DIRECT LIONS JURY: Vaughn Davis, creative director – Y&R

CYBER LIONS JURY: Lachlan McPherson, executive creative director – Publicis Mojo

RADIO LIONS JURY: Chris Schofield, creative director – Draft FCB

PROMO LIONS JURY: Guy Roberts, creative director – TBWA/Tequila

In addition, Nick Worthington, executive creative director at ColensoBBDO, was chosen as a member of the festival’s elite Titanium and Integrated Jury.

“It’s testament to the creative strength of the New Zealand advertising industry that we have representation on six of the twelve juries at the festival. We are one of the most awarded countries in the world for our size when it comes to advertising accolades and no doubt our performance at this year’s Cannes Lions festival will prove that once again,” says Ms King.

Entries are now open in all categories of the 57th Cannes Lions Advertising Festival. Entry forms can be completed online at www.canneslions.com

Deadlines:

Film, Film Craft, Outdoor and Press Lions Entries: 5 March 2010
Design, Direct, Media, PR, Promo & Activation and Radio Lions Entries: 12 March 2010
Cyber, Titanium and Integrated Lions Entries: 19 March 2010

The launch campaign of Sweet Nothings, a new low-fat ice cream from Much Moore, was created by Lachlan McPherson, creative director of Publicis Loft (his new arm of Publicis Mojo), and revolves around the idea that women find it difficult to resist temptation.

“We wanted to find out whether New Zealand women could trust themselves around things that they desire, like shoes, earrings and ice cream,” he says. “We thought it would be interesting to start that conversation.”

So, to test the theory, a billboard that said ‘Manolo Blahniks. Size 8′ was erected on College Hill road on Monday morning and a real pair of US$850 Manolos were placed on a plinth, ready to be snatched away.

The opportunists at the Media Counsel hauled their own ladder over and the very practical ladies then sent up one of their men-folk to collect the shoes, just three hours after they were put up (the shoes are now on Trade Me and the money will go to charity).

So it shows that women definitely can’t be trusted, but as McPherson says, it also shows that men can be trusted to do whatever women tell them to do.

The theory was tested again this morning when a pair of Tiffany & Co. diamond earrings went up on the plinth. And suspicions were confirmed once again: the ladies from the Media Counsel were waiting, swooping in and getting their mits on the earrings just 20 minutes after they went up.

McPherson says he was taken by surprise with how quickly the shoes and earrings were nabbed. He expected them to stay up on the plinth for a week or so, which has meant the whole process has had to be sped up.

In fact, the tradesman responsible for setting up the security cameras in the billboard called him on Monday morning and said there were already a group of people milling around the billboard prodding the shoes with sticks soon after they were put up. As a result, the security cameras that were meant to capture the daring heist weren’t installed in the billboard until later that day.

But he’s been pleasantly surprised with the public response to the social experiment, particularly from the blogging community.

Sweet Nothings ice-cream will be the next offering on the ‘interactive’ billboard, but there will also be plenty of giveaways.