To his credit, it should be said that Jacques Labelle, vice-president, creative director for Cossette Communication-Marketing in Montreal, is not one to just sit on the sidelines and bash others.

His controversial article in the June issue of Info Presse, ‘La publicite quebecoise est malade,’ included some pointed criticism of the way the Publicite-Club de Montreal awards show operates. So this year, he’s serving as president of the jury, and has been actively involved in revamping the rules of the competition.

Here, Labelle explains what prompted him to go public with his views on the state of Quebec creative, and assesses the reaction within the province’s advertising community.

What prompted me to write the article was the fact that the Publicite-Club was pointing to the large number of entries and saying that it had been a great year for advertising in Quebec. Well, wait a minute: The fact that we have more people submitting stuff does not mean we have a healthy industry. In my opinion, we’re not good enough.

I’m not trashing all Quebec advertising; some very good stuff is being produced here. And I’m not saying that everything we do should be easily exported throughout the world, or must fare well in international competition. Good advertising can just as easily be talking to you at the local or regional level.

What I’m questioning is the overall quality of our work here. Certainly we have a few gems here and there. But overall, it’s not good enough. Because sometimes clients and agencies don’t push hard enough. They say ‘That’s good enough’ when it really isn’t – when it can and should be better. For a lot of reasons, we dilute our stuff.

It was a difficult piece to write, especially since I knew it would be distributed at the awards gala. I was sure that some people would take umbrage. But I was convinced of the truth of what I wrote. And if I can’t say it, who can? If it had come from somebody at a smaller agency that doesn’t win a lot of awards, people would have just dismissed it as bitterness and jealousy. But coming from an agency that’s generally among the biggest award winners, I think I’m in the best position to say this.

I’m in no way saying that Cossette is better than other agencies, and I’m not excluding our agency from criticism. I do think we have a better batting average than a lot of agencies – as do Bos and taxi, in many cases – but we’re stuck with a lot of the same problems. We have some clients that are tough to work with, that put research ahead of creative excellence. We deal with the same regulatory restrictions as everybody else. So we’re in the same boat as other agencies. And my goal is to find a way that Cossette is part of the solution.

I got very strong reactions from creative people to some of my points – particularly about research. A lot of creatives agreed that when research is making the decisions instead of us, then there’s a problem. When you’ve got the client’s director of marketing, the agency account people and creative people, and all of their knowledge and experience means nothing next to the judgment of 12 people in a focus group, then something’s not making sense.

The preponderance of legislation and regulation is also a problem. I think there was general consensus that we need some kind of industry group to see what can be done about it. Regulation is like a virus: It spreads easily and it’s hard to stop. There’s a need for change – but things won’t change by themselves.

I’d like to think the article changed somewhat the way people look at our business. I know people talked about it in the agencies around town, and I hope it was discussed with clients as well. I don’t know if it’s going to make our industry that much better, but at least somebody finally voiced what a lot of people have been thinking. At least it got the debate started.

Also in this report:

– Is Quebec advertising sick? Strategy put this controversial question to a number of senior agency people in the province. Here’s what they had to say p.39

– Richard Nadeau keeps it simple: The new vice-president and creative director at Marketel says if he can convince himself of the value of a brand, it will be easy to convince the consumer p.42

– Caroline Jarvis carves a path of her own: After bidding farewell to BCP following a long and satisfying run, the new vice-president and creative director at SVY&R says she’s looking forward to placing her personal stamp on things p.43

– Campaign sells advertising: Publicite-Club ads show people exactly what they’d have to look at if it weren’t for ad creative p.43