Who wants to elect an awards jury?

With all the debate about the purpose and worth of award shows in the past 12 months, The International Andy Awards has taken a novel approach – you decide the jury.

For the first time the Andys, which are based in New York, are asking the public to vote on who they want on the jury. You can also nominate jury members who you think should be in the running to make the jury, but you have to be quick, the select a nominee option closes on 15 October and overall voting closes on 15 November

I think this is a great idea, especially in this digital, everyone-has-a-voice online age that we live in. Also especially as the Andys want to make its awards show more global and pick the best of the best from around the world, and have a better representation from the digital marketing world. It's also targeting Asia, so if there’s someone you think is worthy in Asia then nominate them online at electthejury.com.

“Communications platforms have gotten so complex and advertising is going through unprecedented change because of it. But one of the things that hasn’t changed is the way that awards shows work. Our mission is to get more people from different disciplines actively involved in figuring out who decides what the best work in 2010 is,” Ty Montague, co-chair of the Andys and co-president and chief creative officer of JWT North America, said.

Check out a video of Montague and co-chair Michael Lebowitz's explanation on the jury selection here.

American Idol meets advertising award show, sort-of. Will be interesting to see the results of this crowd-sourcing model and what jury it churns out in the end.

What would you do if you got the sack?

Retrenchments, redundancies and lay offs are very common these days in the advertising industry, but what would your reaction be if it happened to you?

Would you document the whole experience online, through a series of videos and images in a funny, creative way?



That’s exactly what art director Shane Dawson and copywriter Ben Birchall did after they were sacked from The Campaign Palace Melbourne, which is part of WPP, after the agency lost the National Foods account. The pair have created this site called The Sack, which shows the experience of them losing their jobs and their travails in filming the journey, finding out what to do with their time, looking for business and setting up as freelancers.



It shows them going for interviews at agencies like Droga5 and DDB in their hunt for a new job, and shows them gaining some small media fame. It’s good fun and worth a look.



So far their videos have got thousands of views (they're up to day 24), and like a fine wine the series gets better with age. No doubt it’s a only matter of time before they get a new job.

YouTube: A web odyssey

It's miserable weather in Singapore today so here’s a bit of frivolity – 100 of the greatest hits on YouTube since its inception.

And all in four minutes. Actually its 3 minutes and 24 seconds, but who’s counting.

This clip recaps some of the best and brightest moments YouTube has captured, some clips of pure hilarity and stupidity, and some which have lead to 15 minutes of worldwide fame for the subjects. There’s everything from Susan Boyle, the light saber-wielding Star Wars kid and Zinedine Zidane’s World Cup headbutt to Obama Girl and Ok Go’s treadmill music video.



YouTube has certainly irrevocably changed the media landscape and our consumption of media, and it’s amazing how many of these clips from this montage have become etched in our minds.