Singapore changes rules for Cannes Young Lions competition to exclude foreign talent
A competition for young creatives to represent Singapore at the world’s top ad show has changed its rules to allow only locals to enter.
MediaCorp, a national broadcaster that represents Singapore’s young creatives at the Cannes Lions, has said that only Singaporeans and permanent residents will be eligible for the Young Creatives competition this year, because of a government directive to support local talent.
The new rules exclude the many young creatives from overseas working in Singapore.
In previous years, Singapore has been represented by a mixture of foreign and local talent working in the city-state. Among the country’s representatives last year was Thai national Pimwadee Lai, now a copywriter at BBDO Singapore, and Filipino Paolo Agulto, a writer at Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore.
In a statement, MediaCorp told Mumbrella:
The aim of MediaCorp’s Young Creatives competition is to provide a platform for our young creative talents to represent Singapore at the Cannes Young Lions Competition in France, which forms part of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. This is a global competition and each country can only send one team in each category.
In line with the government’s call to strengthen the core of Singaporean talents in key sectors, as well as Design Council’s strategy to groom local talents, the eligibility criteria of the competition has been altered to allow submissions from only Singaporeans and Permanent Residents.
Cannes Lions said that they were unaware of the rule changes in Singapore, and have “very little involvement” in the selection process.
To be eligible for the Young Lions competition, creative teams have to be 28 years old or younger, or 30 years old or younger for the Young Marketers competition. The rules do not require a country representative to be a citizen of that country.
The deadline for entries for Singapore’s Young Creatives competition is Monday, 14 April, having been extended from 9 April.
The judging panel includes Thomas Yang, deputy ECD at DDB Singapore, Clarence Chiew, creative director at Iris, Tay Guan Hin, regional ECD of JWT and Ajay Vikram, Southeast Asia ECD at Publicis, Alex Lim, creative director at Y&R Singapore and Mel Du Toit, ECD at TBWA Singapore.
The winners will be unveiled in the South of France in June.
Watch the ad for last year’s Young Creatives competition for Singapore:
If they really want to support locals, they have to move beyond these empty gestures.
Like setting a strict quota for foreign recruitment….and MOM monitoring which agency are using freelancer who are just on a tourist visa and no employment papers.
ReplyBy excluding foreign talents (and there are many of them in agencies, doing world class work), it goes to show that Medicorp is supporting Singaporeans for the sake of supporting them… and not because they really have what it takes to do well in the global stage.
ReplyThis reminds me of a movie about a young kung fu master aspiring to be the best fighter in his city. Unfortunately his rich overprotective parents pay off all challengers in the city to lose on purpose to avoid hurting their only son. Win after win, he thinks he is the best in the city. Then one day he loses to a visiting fighter. I think you see where this is going….
ReplyWhat ‘The Moral here’ said.
And why not go the whole hog? Do what the schools are doing in some countries – “everyone gets a prize”. No one gets hurt.
ReplyThe only time Singapore has won the young lions was when they sent a Portuguese guy and an Aussie. If the young Singaporean creatives are good enough to win the local leg, they’re good enough to compete in Cannes. Send the best available, simple as that.
ReplySingapore spends millions in attracting creative talent to this city. We gloat about having Lucas Films, etc here. My company spends thousands resettling foreign talent to work here (because the Singaporean creative pool is so small). The government actively pushes the attraction of good foreign talent. If we are to become an INTERNATIONALLY recognised hub for creative excellence, then banning foreign talent is counter productive. Wake up MediaCorp…this is just flagrantly racist. It creative apartheid. It is also interesting to note that the majority of judges of this competition are expats. So it’s fine to have expat judges but not entrants? Double standards.
ReplyHave your say