Alex Lim, Advertising Jury

Alex is one of the original gang I first met here on Beach Road. We never really worked together but we saw each other in the lift once in a while. He worked at WCJ (now without the CJ) back then and I worked at DY&R (Now without the ‘D’).

Spooky thing is, Alex doesn’t age. I mean, really. He looks exactly the same!

If you know this guy, you know that he’s damn passionate about what he does. Get him talking about ads and he will just light up. I’ve wanted to work with him for years now. Just hadn’t had the chance yet. (Maybe he lost my number?)

He really did a job for us when he was at BBH. And when I say us, I mean Singapore. His Levis campaign was the number one ad ranked in the world a few years back by the Gunn Report. Number one in the world man!

OUT OF SINGAPORE!

Yeah boy, right here! On this little patch of earth. Like a lot of guys in town, Alex and the team at BBH proved to the world that you CAN do it from Singapore.

Despite our friendly critics, cynics and local whiners, LEVIS is VERY REAL and IS a BIG Budget Account.

Hat’s off to Steve Elrick and the BBH crew that pulled that off.

I think Singapore needs another one of those Alex. Think you can knock another one out for us? I’d like to think all of us here in Singapore are striving for something that big. We’ll get it. You’ll see.

The most amazing thing about Alex though isn’t his book or youthful good looks. It’s the fact that he hasn’t ever judged CCA!

For the record, picking a jury is HELL. And no, you can’t have a jury of 80 people. (All of which equally deserve to be there.)

It’s a fine balance really. I mean you can’t have two guys from the same agency. And you also don’t want a guy who doesn’t have street cred. Or a guy (or girl) who was on our jury last year.

That eliminates a lot of great people. I also can’t pick all my buddies or ex-staff. But I do want to include people who I think are moving the bar for us creatively. The old guard is cool and they will always be cool. But you know, I think it’s time to see some new faces.

I think everybody we have on this jury right now deserves to be there. Open up the international award books and you will find them. Naturally, there’s always more we can add, and there will always be other shows that they can Chair or be on the jury.

For this show there will be a jury of 10 people. We’re still sorting out the advertising jury! Some guys are in, then they have to cancel. Then I find somebody else, then she has to cancel. It’s the usual thing I guess. Luckily, I have so much help form the other CDs in town. And of course, previous CCA Chairmen.

As for Alex, if we can ever pull him away from BBDO for a couple of days, he’ll be judging our work starting on 9 October.

Speaking of deadlines, guys get your TV entries in by end of this Monday. And your print work by the 21st okay.

The original deadline was 12 September. But, you know…