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The Handy Awards celebrates advertising’s biggest wankers
Most of us in the advertising industry probably started out flipping through the awards books back during college. We dreamed of one day seeing our name on one of those pages and holding up a giant pencil or golden Clio. Well, now there’s a way you might see your name on a trophy, regardless of your skills, as advertising awards have reached peak honesty with The Handy Awards.
As the exact opposite of a Cannes Lions award, any adman can earn some glory whether they’re in the privacy of their own office or Netflix and chilling at home. The concept comes from a couple of industry creatives who prefer to remain anonymous. They created the Handy Awards to take a jab at the fact that there are just too many advertising awards these days.
“It’s pretty clear award shows have gotten out of hand, so we wanted to take the piss out of them,” says one of the co-founders, “But the Handy’s also signify how male-dominated advertising is. The fact that only 3 percent of creative directors are women should be a wake-up call to everyone in the industry.”
This new show — that isn’t really a show at all — is actually an app where you get a prize just for shaking your phone up and down like a real wanker. The Handy Awards doles out the fake award by the longer you shake the phone; the longer you go, the more prestigious the Handy. According to their website, this is the world’s first advertising award show where you can give yourself an award without entering any work or sitting through someone else’s boring case study video.
If you’d like to give yourself a Handy, you can check out the website on your phone and see how much of an advertising wanker you really are.