Creatives young and old have had a love/hate relationship with Bob Garfield, who for the last 25 years has produced his “Ad Review” segment on Advertising Age. (His position on this? On a scale of one to five, few ads are total zeros and few ads are prize fives. Over his whole career the average ad has received about a 3.4, significantly higher than the average true quality of industry television advertising output at large.)

Ad bloggers, whether or not they agree with his arguments, arguably see him as the person who began what they continue today. He’s also the author of The Chaos Scenario and co-hosts National Public Radio’s “On the Media.”

I ran into Bob at the Carlton this weekend, then later Monday in front of the Palais, sporting a decidedly cannois summer hat. (I didn’t know at the time, but it was also his birthday.) He thoughtfully agreed to sit and talk at a nearby beach side restaurant — which we only later discovered is probably the loudest atmospheres in all the land.

So forgive the sound on this video (subtitles will be added later today). The six-minute video is, however, worth the watch. We talk about what inspired him to work in the industry — you know, the ad equivalent of your “first kiss” in advertising because it’s singled you out, drawn you into this vacuum like a siren.

We also discussed where advertising is headed, what it means to be an advertising critic, and how he feels about the Cannes Lions’ decision to change their tagline from “The Festival of Advertising” to “The Festival of Creativity.”

Watch the video here. And happy birthday again, Bob.