The image above is the edit of my (obviously too long) Cannes picks interview for Advertising Age, which was a very big honour for me and good fun to write as well. Below is my full interview, complete with references to the X-Men and of course, Berkeley the Dog. Oh, and some cool advertising too.

Cannes Picks for Cyber 2010 – Tom Eslinger

I’m looking forward to Cannes this year with a mix of anticipation and fear. Anticipation of fthe shoot-outs in Cyber and fear  of the extinction-level magnetic field that will be caused by all that smartphone blog-tweet-share-apping in one place. It will be the magnitude of the one that Magneto used on Wolverine in the battle at the end of Ultimatum, and we all know how that turned out, right?

1.What campaign is likely to do well at Cannes, and why?
My Cannes experience has been on Cyber and Titanium juries, so I have goggles set on simple, connecting and WOW! Ideas like Monopoly on played out on Google Maps, the Boone Oakley site, IKEA Showroom and cool augmented stuff like BMW Z4 all have those qualities. When I first served on Cannes juries, anything from Absolut and Nike seemed to be pre-printed in the shortlists. Now, Uniqlo looks to be taking over the Absolut spot with consistent work like Calendar and Lucky Switch. Personally, my fingers are crossed for Saatchi LA’s Sponsafier and 3G Prius work – GO TEAM!

2.What’s the best use of social media you’ve seen in the last year?
I really like Nokia’s World’s Biggest Signpost (no more Farfar, sniffle) because it was simple and happened in the real world, making ripples through relevant media online and mobile – and was way weird and wonderful. I love We Choose The Moon, which made Twitter feel warm and immediate and re-awakened inner little kids all over the world. My dog Berkeley got his head stuck in a mini-Pringles can as a puppy, so he is organizing a block-vote for Pringles’ Oversharers. Ikea Showroom and Uniqlo stuff will no doubt be magnetic in one of the juries.

3.Which region or country most impresses you right now, and why?
I’ve been lucky enough to have spent time in China over the last few years and have watched the work move rapidly into multi-layered ideas like recent stuff from there for adidas and our  Beijing office’s work for HP. Years ago, I yabbered on and on about how mobile from Asia was going to blow people’s minds but surprisingly I’m still waiting for the jaw-and-phone-dropping work to match the gnarly hardware.

4.What would you like to see less –or none–of next year–what needs to be retired?
The simple answer is technical tricks posing as ideas. The challenge is to pick out the hits from all that random noise that’s blasting out at full volume. I can only imagine how many smartphone apps, Twitter-y things and AR one-hit wonders are lined up in the judging jukebox waiting for a spin.

On my watch as President of Cyber we collectively focused on the ideas that cut-through, not the fancy technical tricks. We pulled out Dove, Nike iD and The Heidis, which all went on to kill across the board – should have moved Cyber to Saturday night.  I’m hoping that the juries will apply similar filters, because in a short time, the delivery mediums in this space have matured and are now rabidly loved.

5. What was the most exciting work you saw from your country/region in the past year?
Essentially, I work everywhere we have an office, so unless I get some free gear from Uniqlo and Nokia, I’ve reached my plug-limit!

6. What were the biggest challenges you faced in the last year within your particular country/region when it came to doing great creative work?
Wherever you are,  the challenge when you work neck-deep in “digital stuff” is to find your place in the overall process and to spread the way you think into every bit of the core idea. I tell people it doesn’t matter whether you are first or last in the presentation to the client, you have to be in there all the way along. Screens are the connective tissue in our work now and our job is to hook ‘em all together. The challenge is getting our teams and clients to see us all, regardless of how we self-identify – media, agency, all of the pieces in the puzzle – as an ecosystem around their brand’s ideas – one can’t (and mustn’t) exist without the others.

I’m not choking him, just adjusting the direction of his gaze, I swear…

Santa and elf preparing to deliver stuff…

Santa, elf and special guest out on the front steps of the house…I swear…

No, we aren’t in a cage of some wild animal in the zoo, that is the front yard…I swear…

The Dawgz!

Berkeley has just finished trick or treat at Saatchi London. Here he is preparing to get a treat (his trick was ‘Sit’, in case you were wondering…)

Arthur is also being used as a size comparison for how fast he is growing. Check this out: The most recent photo of Arthur and Berkeley together (19 Oct 2009) is below…

This is the first pic of them together 3 weeks ago (below)…yikes…he’ll be about 8 feet tall at this rate

This is the first fitting of Berkeley’s pirate costume. He held still for exactly 1 minute.

He then walked calmly over to his rug and started to eat the hat, starting with the neck strap…I wonder how he’ll like the lobster costume, coming soon…

Later, back to ‘butter won’t melt in my mouth’ pose….

The world's first laundry dog

This is the new little man around the house – his name is Berkeley Jackson, born June 26 and came to live in St John’s Wood Sept 1. His interests include biting, the ‘zoomies’ and learning sit, lie down and NO! In fact, he thinks that his name is NO, with ‘OUCH’ being a close second. We’re teaching him to do laundry as well so he has something to do while watching soaps and eating bon bons….More pics to come.

Humiliated at Bath Time!

Watchmen Arcade Game
Waiting for the Watchmen movie is making me physically ill…I’ve stopped eating until Ozymandius kills <spoiler deleted> and Dr Manhattan blasts <spoiler deleted> and they find out that <spoiler deleted> killed the Comedian! Until then, I’ve been playing this game wearing my original Watchmen smiley button.

Esquire Interactive Cover Gallery
Instant inspiration, all the Esquire covers (from some tasty designer heroes), all in one place. Thanks to NotCot.

Hyrdochromatic Umbrellas
Get wet, still look cool – these umbrellas change colour and design when they get wet – must be an ad in here somewhere….

KERN – The iPhone Game
I’ve been looking for a reason to get an iPhone, this is it. Anyone who knows me has seen my inner type-nazi…for those who have felt the pain of me whining about letterspacing, you can now play a game about it. NICE!!

RadiologyArt
Ever wondered what your TV dinner looks like as a 3D movie….from the inside? Find out with this nifty technique…art buyers, hurry up and use these dudes!

The future of social networks…maybe
A really good tip from Peter Mangin in our AKL office – cheers Pete!! “In this presentation (link below), Charlene Li (Groundswell) makes the point that in the future, Social Networks will “be like air.” Thanks to universal identity and sign-in, your friends will be wherever you need them… literally their recommendations and thoughts will be at your finger tips. Just as important, this social graph will help marketers provide more relevent information and advertising to consumers when and where they need.” Take a TV break and check it!

Leyio (or…if you don’t already have enough stuff to carry around)
The Leylo is a new gadget to share and carry-around, with a groovy fingerprint scanner to keep everything secure. Bye Bye USB? Me likey…

Social Networks Evolve: Facebook Connect
Thanks again to Peter in the NZ team. Facebook Connect is going to (hopefully) change the way we, er, connect using social networks, mobiles and maybe, everything. A good little video overview from the crew at Razorfish.

TouchGrind iPhone Skating Game
Thanks to Rachid for this tip – very cool iPhone game.