Now in its 36th year, the Caxton Awards & 3-day seminar are sponsored annually by The Newspaper Works (representative body for the major newspaper publishers), and are an acknowledgement of creative excellence in newspaper advertising.

The combined awards and weekend away format is unique within Australian advertising and media. It is one of the most respected advertising programs in Australia and the only seminar of its kind in the world.

Each year a panel of judges (hand picked for their experience and expertise in advertising creativity) are invited to select the most outstanding newspaper advertisements for the current year.

The Caxton Awards are an annual event and each year the seminar is held in a different location within Australia or New Zealand. Previous Caxton Awards have been held at Hamilton Island, Byron Bay, Strahan – Tasmania, Cable Beach - Broome, Hayman Island and Queenstown, New Zealand. Each venue has added a unique and memorable quality to the Caxton Awards, resulting in a large percentage of delegates returning each year.

The Caxton Awards attract a high calibre of delegates, primarily senior advertising agency creatives, and account service and senior executive staff from the major metropolitan newspapers. All major agencies in Australia attend the weekend seminar as well as representation from the major New Zealand agencies. These agencies include Saatchi & Saatchi, George Patterson Y&R, McCann-Erickson, Clemenger, Colenso, EURO RSCG, The Campaign Palace, DDB and M&C Saatchi.

Each year the Caxton Committee invites an international luminary to speak at the Caxton Weekend along with a client speaker, a newspaper speaker and respected advertising creative speakers. Past international speakers include: Piyush Pandey, Ogilvy & Mather India, Lorenzo De Rita, KesselsKramer Netherlands, Richard Maddocks, Colenso BBDO New Zealand, Nick Cohen, Mad Dogs& Englishmen USA, Andy Law, St Luke’s UK. Past client speakers include: Martin McKinnon - Head of Marketing, Qantas, Andy Mallinson - Virgin Mobile, Graham Hardy - Managing Director, Audi Australia, Peter Maher - Executive Director, Macquarie Bank, Holly Kramer – Telstra, Jeff Goodby - Goodby Silverstein & Partners, David Droga - Droga5.

Bryce Courtenay organised the Caxton weekend for many years and is a regular attendee. Other well known legends who attend are Ray Black, Lionel Hunt, Jack Vaughan along with Stan May, Reg Bryson, Tom Moult, Wayne Vinten, Fysh Rutherford and Steve Browning to name a few.

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In praise of the Larrikin.

I’ve made it a practice of only naming those featured in Caxton moments where the deeds were truly heroic or breathtakingly original. Those dullards who foolishly entered such events as The Caxton Talent Quest with the pathetic hope of winning have been protected from any further embarrassment by not being named.
A true Caxton hero at Broome was a guest speaker and Talent Quest entrant, Ted Emery.

Ted spoke on the issue of the use of the Australian dialect in our advertising. Ted, an ex RAN sailor and now well known TVC director is also the director of the TV series, Kath and Kim. He understands our lingo and is a masterful storyteller. In his talk, Ted told us of what was shaping up to be a spooky mystery.

Coming back from a tour of duty in Vietnam, his ship stopped near an isolated beach somewhere on the Queensland coast for a bit of private R&R with a BBQ. All was going well until Ted felt he needed to evacuate his bowels as one politely puts it. He walked a distance away from the BBQ to a grove of palm trees where he set about his task. After completing his mission, he buttoned up and looked around to check the result only to find nothing there. He knew this was not right so he returned to the BBQ and reported his concern to his shipmates who immediately mounted a comprehensive search party.

Moving carefully along the beach and into the tree line, there was nothing to be found. Suddenly there was an excited, triumphant shout, “There it goes!” There was a large turtle slowly moving along the beach carrying a heavy load on its back. Not a politically correct yarn but what the hell, you don’t come to a Caxton to listen to a lot of homogenised, pasteurised pap. You come to learn and laugh.

Long live the Caxton larrikin.

Caxton Moments in Tasmania.Caxton at Cradle Mountain, Tasmania.

Tasmania and Tasmanians are different: and that’s not because of the six fingers on each hand.
Upon arrival at Cradle Mountain Lodge, we were greeted by a guide who briefed us on some important issues.
This guide had a luxurious, long black Ned Kelly beard and a battered hat jammed tightly on his head down to his ears. The most worrisome thing about him was his bright blue eyes with their thousand yard stare.

He cautioned us not to leave any windows open in their cabins as possums will get in.
Don’t go wandering off as the weather can turn savage without warning. I think that was not the real reason as I believe they knew there were a few remaining T- Rexs and Raptors still roaming out there and they would not appreciate the publicity that would come with delegates mysteriously ”disappearing”.

I asked The Beard does it snow often here? He said it could snow any day of the year. He was correct. It was late October and it snowed the morning of the Bollinger “Fun” Run.
He was also correct about the possums. Someone left their cabin window open and found their room totally trashed as if by a gang of madmen.

Tasmania also causes changes in normal behaviour. At the Talent Quest there was an act that replicated a Tasmanian TV weather forecast. A female newspaper executive held a cut out TV screen framing the general area of what is politely know as “her private parts”. As false merkin was stuck in place to represent Tasmania. Her male assistant stood beside her and presented the weather as he pointed to various parts of “Tasmania”. It was compulsive viewing.

Normally, newspaper executives are shy creatures when it comes to Talent Quests. On the other hand, at another Caxton, there was a rare demonstration of real talent. Ray Atkinson, a well known newspaper executive, has a magnificent booming baritone voice and led a male chorus singing, “There is nothing like a dame” from South Pacific. Another example that demonstrates not all acts are total rubbish. This courageous example set by Ray should rally other newspaper execs in future to express their suppressed talents. It could be a career enhancing move.

My final image of Caxton at Cradle Mountain was seeing one of the smiling Bollinger “Fun” runners breasting the finish line through sleet and light snow, holding a glass of Bollinger in hand without spilling a drop.
That is real style.

Caxton Talent Quest Moments.

For sheer spectacle, it was hard to beat the Caxton Water Ballet at Noosa. Inspired by Hollywood’s Busby Berkley, we were dumbfounded to see a very lean Michael Robinson and a very rotund Geoff Lindley as the centrepieces of the circle of Caxton water nymphs. The image is burned into my consciousness forever.

For real danger, we saw Fysh Rutherford, also at Noosa, do a standing jump into a 44 gallon drum. He stood beside it and just jumped in ,risking severe damage to his Jatz Crackers. Once in the drum, an accomplice squirted lighter fluid on the outside of the drum, set it alight then rolled it into the pool.
You don’t see that every day.

The story behind banning food acts. A certain well known creative decided the punch line to his act was for no particular reason, dump a large quantity of cooked spaghetti on the head of his accomplice. A spaghetti fight naturally ensued. Soon afterwards the food ban for the Talent Quest was extended to include bodily functions and fluids.

A diplomatic incident narrowly averted. This was at Hamilton Island, a favourite for Japanese honeymooners.
It so happened a Japanese couple, showing bad timing to have their honeymoon on the same weekend as a Caxton, was persuaded to come on stage and be subjected to a ritual where they could become Australian citizens.
Zinc crème was applied to their noses, given a can of VB each, instructed how to rip the ring pull with a flourish, take a long draft and say “get it into ya!” Various other risque phrases were diligently repeated until they were finally pronounced as Australian citizens. I’m sure they hadn’t a clue what it was all about.

Real talent, yes, real talent. Stan May’s rendition of “Take the A Train” where he mimicked all the instruments in this classic jazz track, stunned all into silence.
Neil Shennen was the first to sing a wine label to the tune of a Gregorian chant.
Greg Logan did a show stopping Streisand classic with full costume and gestures. Fabulous.
See, not all talent quest entrants are total rubbish.

How to be banned in bulk. Flying back from Alice Springs we were served coffee and a toy sized slice of fruit cake in a cellophane bag. Someone thought it would be fun to throw his piece of fruit cake at the back of someone’s head. Did all Caxton delegates on board frown on this? No, it somehow inspired several other tired and emotional delegates to start a fruit cake fight. The hostesses went into freak out mode which caused the co pilot to come out and read the riot act to all.
Caxton was banned by that airline forever.

How to get your agency banned. As we all know, attendance at all talks are compulsory. Apart from manners, that requirement would seem redundant as that’s the main reason why delegates come. It was a sunny day and a group from a well known very creative agency decided they would rather sit beside the pool instead. They didn’t see it coming: Bryce flew out of the conference room verbally lashing the delinquents like never before. They learnt a whole lot of new words too. Hell has no fury like a Bryce scorned. The ban on that agency stayed in place for many years.

A person of interest. It was our first Caxton out of town at Albury Wodonga, towns straddling the mighty Murray. It’s often compared to Budapest where you have Buda one side of the Danube and Pest the other; but I digress. Two police officers wanted to speak with a particular Caxton delegate about various matters. An arrest did not ensue.

A CAXTON MOMENT.

It was early one morning. Beside the swimming pool there was a seriously conscientious Caxton delegate furiously doing his push–ups. There he was, sweating, grimacing and grunting. Just at that moment, one of the Caxton walking wounded was making his way back to his room after a very, very long night.Without pausing or making eye contact with Mr. Push-ups, our party goer said discreetly, “Sorry mate, gotta tell you, she’s gone”.