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Sumanto Chattopadhyay

`From where I sit, in Cannes, it is easy to see that the world will never run out of fresh ideas, or the people who have them.'

BMW premiered its new short film, Who killed the idea? on June 18 at the Cannes International Advertising Film Festival. Directed by award-winning director Hermann Vaske, it stars Harvey Keitel and Debi Mazar. It is also the launch vehicle of the new BMW 5 Series saloon.

The film starts out like a classic thriller: A beautiful, mysterious woman hires a private detective to find out who killed the idea. He goes looking for the killer with her — in the new BMW, naturally. Somewhere along the way, she explains to him that creativity is dead because people do not want it anymore. "Something aesthetically pleasing but empty, like me, that's what they want," she says. He is forced to admit that she has a point.

But when the woman starts talking about the fabulous features of the new car, the cynical detective tells her, "Shut up, you sound like a commercial." It is this self-deprecating irony of the film that allows us to overlook the fact that it is basically a plug for BMW. That is not the only trick Who killed the idea? has up its sleeve: As its detective story comes to a conclusion, the film deftly switches genre to become a documentary in which artists from diverse fields air their points of view on the death of creativity.

Committees, focus groups, a desire to not rock the boat and a need to appeal to the lowest common denominator were some of the reasons given by the likes of director Wim Wenders, photographer Oliviero Toscani and artist Malcolm McLaren as to why creativity was in decline. The maker of the film, Vaske, felt that it was self-censorship that was stifling art.

The irony of it all was that the premiere of Who killed the idea? at Cannes was in itself an extremely creative way of advertising the new BMW 5 Series saloon. This is not the first time BMW has used short films to advertise its cars. Last year, it made waves at Cannes with its online film series, The Hire. The five-to-seven minute films feature a Bond-style driver who takes various people, including Madonna, for the ride of their lives. These films have been streamed millions of times by consumers since their launch. The growth of the Internet has clearly opened up a whole new avenue for creativity.

Nevertheless, creative people will always feel that the world is trying to curb their creativity. And, they will always find ways to break out. In fact, it is often repression itself, which makes creativity flow. Like vines that crack the thickest walls and blossom. Thus despite, or because of recession, the Iraq war, SARS and terrorism, the flowering of creativity is clearly evident at Cannes.

Take India's performance as an example — the gold medals for the Coke and `Cancer cures smoking' commercials and the silvers for the anti-smoking Asterisk ad. Or consider the grand prix winner in the outdoor category, the wonderful `No Bugs Insect Spray' campaign. Each hoarding showed multiple images of a person poised to spray insecticide as seen by the compound eyes of a spider, fly or other insect. In a seemingly boring product category in which all interesting concepts were supposedly used up, this is truly an idea coup!

From where I sit, in Cannes, it is easy to see that the world will never run out of fresh ideas, or the people who have them. The 13th new directors' showcase presented by Saatchi & Saatchi underlines this point. It treated us to several excitingly unpredictable short films and TV commercials. The show itself was kicked off in an excitingly unpredictable manner with Tarsem, the celebrated Indian ad filmmaker, appearing on stage in elegant silk kurta-pajama, to conduct the Regional Orchestra of Cannes performing Profokiev's Montagues and Capulets. As the music came to an end, he took a bow and left without saying a word, allowing the young directors' work to speak for itself. Tarsem, incidentally, was introduced to the world by the very first Saatchi & Saatchi new directors' showcase.

One of the many interesting ads screened features a currency note in circulation. It passes from the unwashed hands of a man who has just visited a urinal to a stripper into whose panties it is tucked to a man who drops it on the road by mistake to a beggar and so on until it reaches a man's wallet. The camera freezes on the image of the well-travelled note being tucked into a fancy leather wallet. It is accompanied by the super: Cash is filthy. The film ends with the logo of Visa credit cards. This interesting spot, directed by Marc Swadel for Nerve Films, really made me wonder about the contents of my own wallet!

Who killed the idea? Apparently, nobody did. Granted, there are many would-be murderers lurking in the bushes. But the idea has proved it can outmanoeuvre them all. As long as there are creative people out there fighting off the clichés and zigging when everyone expects them to zag, the idea will continue to flourish.

(The author is Senior Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather Advertising. The views expressed are his own. Feedback can be sent to bleditor@thehindu.co.in.)

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