Notes from the jury room

It has become an annual event, like turning back the clocks or spotting the first Christmas decorations. Just as the weather starts to get chilly, the invitation from Epica arrives in our e-mail boxes. “Please join our jury.”

It’s an honour, but also a challenge. After all, the jurors many spend hours in a darkened room looking at ads. The pre-selection jury (of which yours truly is a member) has perhaps the least enviable task, because it has to winnow down hundreds of entries to an acceptable shortlist. And then in December the big shots arrive – the editors from far-flung destinations like Helsinki, Istanbul, Prague or Budapest – to spend an intense few days in a Paris hotel choosing the ultimate winners. Sightseeing is out the question.

The atmosphere is relaxed and jovial – most of the time. When there are two clear favourites for a category, the debate can heat up; although matters rarely get out of hand. The level of tension is just high enough to make the voting session for the Epica d’Or exciting. Sometimes, an ad can come within two or three votes of winning, dashing the hopes of some and eliciting sighs of content from others.

But once a winner has been chosen, all differences are set aside. A ritual bottle of champagne is popped open and the winner is screened one last time, so everybody can feel pleased with their work. Journalists are often stereotyped as a cynical bunch, but it’s incredible how enthusiastic these people are about advertising. They may not admit it to your face, but I’m sure that some of them regard it as an art form.

That’s another good reason to accept an invitation to be on the jury. When you see how much imagination and ingenuity – creativity, ultimately – is poured into these commercial messages, it makes you think that human beings can’t be so bad after all.

Which is not a bad Christmas gift.

Mark Tungate is a Paris-based freelance journalist specialising in branding and advertising. See tungateinparis.com