Today is Friday the 13th and I’m in Montevideo. I’ve been watching commercials for hours and enjoying this opportunity to judge at the Ojo de Iberoamérica, with the DVD they sent me on my laptop and a Diet Coke without ice, while we get ready to continue filming tomorrow. I think I’m going to have to keep doing this between one shoot and another, because there are 700 pieces for each judge, out of the almost 4,000 that were entered this year. It’s a truly rich and exciting experience, albeit heavy and exhausting.
I suppose that Mau Garnier must also be in the same situation, as he is the other Tico on the jury, like all the others in our Ibero-American region, because the initial voting closes on Monday, and we have to do it through the Internet. Then the short lists will come out and, well, between November 6 and 8 the winners will be announced at the Buenos Aires Hilton. In any case, why am I telling you this? Because I think we have to bring the great festivals of advertising creativity to San Jose, Costa Rica, and to each one of us.
“Do you know who cares about Costa Rica? Man, Costaricans!”, Kevin Roberts, author of Lovemarks, told me one day in a brutally honest and sincere way. And he said it not to offend, but to open my eyes and crack the myopia that all of us native Costa Ricans from towns like ours have. For this reason, the way is to connect, participate and try to ignite the desire to win in these great creative arenas.
Yes, I accept that. We will not have the giant production budgets as in other markets, but we can compensate with ideas, innovation, daring. And of course, I accept that we will have lobbying to do, breaking many obstacles and getting attention, one piece at a time.
Believe me. Nothing is impossible.