Awardzt!

Past 9pm Friday night, I received text messages from my colleagues in Boracay. A direct mailer material that my art director and I created won a bronze award in the Creative Guild Awards held there.

“I’d like to thank my art director, he was the one who first thought of the concept; I helped flesh it out and embellished it. And thank you to our artists, our print producer, our suppliers, and to our AEs for pulling everything off. And to our ECD for choosing that material as one of our entries.” (pause) “You like me… you really, really like me!”

But really, for me awards are no big deal. I mean, sure, they’re a big deal at that time it’s given—and a few days after. And for the young ones in the industry, they’re still at that stage where losing at an awards show is a big blow to them. But if you think about it, there are more award winners (bronze, silver, gold and even platinum) who have all been relegated to the dustbin of memory. And if you ask people what their most memorable or most-loved ads are, a number of those ads did not even see the light of nomination. In the larger scheme of things, it really is not as big a deal at all (jeez, I’m so gonna get in trouble for this from my bosses, hahaha).

So when you receive an award—be it an Araw, or a Kidlat, or a Clio, or a Lion, or even an Oscar(!)—just receive it graciously, thank everyone genuinely and profusely, and get off that stage as quickly as possible.