Amir Kassaei of DDB: Advertising is stagnant due to lack of creativity in the industry

For Creative Global Director at DDB, Amir Kassaei, advertising is stagnant. He is critical about advertising festivals, which he blames for artificially inflating categories. “Giving value to a creative idea in a context of a lot of great festivals categories is totally wrong” he said. The dilemma is not about the quality of advertising awards, but if the entries are worthy of them. “Because most of the entries that accomplish to reach out in the Cannes Lions are prototypes and not real ads” Kassaei denounced. “Many of the campaigns that attend to Cannes Lions -specially for social causes- are though only and exclusively to please jurors. And this is deeply hypocritical” he assured. For him the main problem of the advertising industry is the alarming lack of creativity, when it should be the authentic model of it. “I feel that our sector is stagnant. It doesn’t make me shiver anymore when – acting as jury-, I see ideas parade in advertising festivals” he confessed. “But I must be kind of right when I say we’re stagnant. For me this year Cannes Lions seemed to be a technology festival instead of one regarding creativity”.