coke lions/ cannes vice

Filed Monday, 6/26/2006 by Kirin Sapporo (Cannes, France) for The Muk Report (more Cannes stories over there) and slightly edited by yours truly, in honour of that day in my life when I chose a TV editor job over a junior position at McCann. And that other day when I chose an unknown agency over the proposal (from my then soon-to-become-former boss) to let friends match me with a big (my size!) player of the field. And all those other days when I resisted assaults from big players. Truth be told: none offered something this enticing. I mean Cannes, of course. Photo found here.

I was at a large agency’s party at an exclusive yacht club. The setup looked like an episode of that MTV show "My Super Sweet 16." They had it all: velvet ropes, smartly dressed bouncers, imported English DJs, and smoke machines. Fashionwise, I felt ashamed to be a man. Ad guys were dressed sloppily in jeans, sandals, and t-shirts while the women were dressed to the nines: designer dresses, Jimmy Choos, Prada bags, and salon hair. White is in. And backless is, uhh, back. There were a few people I recognized and a fair number of "agency" girls there—and not the advertising kind. I saw a pair of stunning blondes sporting open back blouses and tight white pants with seemingly nothing on underneath. I couldn’t picture either of them working as account planners. Speaking of subtlety, a conversation with "Mike," an industry player I know, went something like this,

Sapporo: Hey, how’s it going? I just saw [mutual friend] Rick down at the bar.
Mike: Oh yeah? Rick's here? That guy is a fucking asshole.
Sapporo: Uh, how so?
Mike: Well, yesterday he sent his assistant out to score some coke. Rick basically promised the kid a promotion if he could hook 'em up.
Sapporo: He couldn’t manage to get it himself?
Mike: Nope.
Sapporo: [Pause]
Mike: Why, you got any?