This
year’s first Y&R regional creative directors’ conference (where our work is
vilified, nudged off the table with a shudder, or, in the best of situations,
held up to the rest of the group with comments like “Well, maybe…”) took place
in Bali, coinciding with Create ’06. Bali is as heavenly as the brochures
look, and if you’re brown and vaguely Malay in features, the shills in the
touristy areas let you be.
I stayed at
the Oberoi, in a garden room. The Oberoi is classic Balinese – everything built
at a low level, raw stone nestling against intricately-carved wood, stone
guardians in black-and-white checked sarongs.
The
Oberoi is part of a row of resorts and restaurants that line a curve of Seminyak
beach. Unlike Kuta and Legian, where you sometimes can’t tell the shills from
the tourists, Seminyak feels more friendly, and less crowded. This is where
shops like the Loft (two stories of home furnishings and, this season, only
black and white clothes), Morena (expensive ultra-femme dresses, and shockingly
good, original silver jewelry) and Pygmees (whimsical urban clothing) thrive,
alongside stalls of geegaws and Irian Jaya souvenir fakers and, for some reason,
makers and retailers of leather jackets and cowboy boots. (I’ve often wondered
about the same thing happening in Bangkok – where do those leather jackets go?
You certainly don’t see the locals wearing
them.)
I spent most of the time in the
hotel. That made me sad. I didn’t make it to Ubud, one of my most favorite
places in the small part of the world I’ve actually
seen.
This
is the view from the hotel’s outdoor restaurant. So okay, being stuck in the
hotel wasn’t all that
bad.
At dusk, the tinkle and gong of gamelan
mingled with the whoosh and slur of
surf.
A
gratuitous night shot. My new camera (the Nikon Coolpix P3 with VR – vibration
reduction) wanted to show off.
On
our last evening, we attended the Media Asian Advertising Awards at Ku De Ta,
beside the Oberoi. The lamb chop and snapper were excellent, although our
performance wasn’t. There’s always next year.
Of
course, all the pressure’s on Joey. (Insert evil laugh here.)
Congratulations to the Philippine
winners:
Leo Burnett for Perla “Lean On Me”, 2
Bronze Spikes (1 for Press, 1 Poster)
JWT for
Greenpeace “Trees,” Bronze Spike
BBDO for
Unicef/Consuelo “Bunso,” Bronze Spike