French whine

Tragedies, no matter how tragic, are purely subjective. For some, burning toast produces tears. While for others, blackened rye is the only way they take it, a joyous expression of everything right with breakfast. Consensuses, or “consensi” as they’re often referred to, are unusual. But the cancellation of the Cannes Festival of Creativity is one such tragedy that has universal support. These are the moments that give a person pause to take stock - chicken, beef, vegetable - of what’s actually valuable in life. It’s easy for us to forget and ignore, but without these award shows how can anyone justify whatever it is we do? You don’t act in a vacuum. Unless it’s as spacious as a miraculous Dyson. You act for the award. 

When Cannes was initially postponed until October, many in the industry breathed heavy, pharmaceutically-assisted sighs of relief. You can’t cancel something so fundamental, they thought. How will it look to generations of creative directors still unborn? Without the festival, human beings in 10, 100, 1000 years will be incapable of reviewing the creative geniuses of 2020 with 2020. It’s a lost year. If an ad is created without an award in mind, did it really happen? Did it make an impact?

But we don’t have to imagine the tragic implications when it comes to a shortsighted decision of this magnitude. Look at baseball and it’s 1994 strike-shortened season. For the first time in ninety years, there was no World Series. And the sport has never recovered. In the ensuing twenty-six years winning awards has become our global pastime. All of that could change without a beachside party where linen flows to the horizon and promises are made under that special Mediterranean twilight.

Think of what we lost in ’94. Tony Gwynn was on his way to becoming the first .400 hitter since World War II. Matt Williams was within spitting distance of Roger Maris. The worst result was reserved for the Montreal Expos, the pride of Quebec. Possessing the best record in the game, a dubious honor during a time of labor strife, they still have nothing to show for their superb play. In a few years they’d leave Canada altogether and head to our nation’s capital. Think again if you don’t think it can't happen to Cannes. Weary of crowds, cardboard and creativity, who’s to say the festival won’t go totally virtual – Cyber Lions anyone? Or maybe sensing a changing tide, the whole festival will move inexplicably to Washington, DC. As a New Yorker, I still haven't gotten over the capital leaving here over two centuries ago.

After the 1994 baseball season, there was one thing retained amid so much cancellation. Awards. The writers still gave out awards. Let that be a lesson.