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I’ve just this second finished the first round of judging for the Digital section of D&AD. Apparently, I was the only judge who needed the bank holiday weekend to get through all the entries. It was needed.

There were 307 pieces of work. That included 233 case-study films. I have no words to explain what 233 case studies do to your brain.

Obviously, judging D&AD means being exposed to all the best creative work out there. However, I hadn’t really thought about the fact that the good bits would be really well-hidden among some of the most boring things humans have ever spent time and money on.

Guys, we really have to stop making case-study films. Impressions. No-one knows what 397 million impressions means. That’s the population of Western Europe. There is no way that the campaign for a French phone tariff reached everyone in France, never mind the surrounding countries.

Well, thank God there are no case studies in Private View’s little package, but case-study overload has definitely left me a tad cynical.

A TV ad for Hellmann’s. It’s a response to a compliment that a dude called Keith has posted to their Facebook wall. I had a look on their Facebook page. They’re asking for compliments! Like, actually asking for compliments. The reward for a compliment is a personalised jar of mayonnaise. The world has gone mad. Are people that bored?

I think a brand should only ever behave how you’d want a human to behave. Imagine the person who asks for compliments: "Tell me you like my face. Tell me." Any brand in the world could make this ad. Ask for a compliment. Get one. If you don’t, make it up. Then bring the compliment to life. It’s not even a compliment specific to mayonnaise.

Hailo is projecting pictures of its cabbies on to London landmarks as part of its campaign against driverless car technology. Ever since Gail Porter, I’ve always liked a projection. Maybe I’m a cold-hearted human, but I’m OK not seeing my cabbie’s face. If I can see it, they’re not driving and I’m probably having a boring conversation.

If one more cabbie tells me "the reason there are so many roadworks right now is because the council likes to spend their money before the end of the financial year", I may never take a Hailo again. Uber drivers never make me talk about roadworks. This campaign might work, but I don’t get the problem they’re trying to address.

Life Paint! I’m jealous. A real problem, an amazing solution. Perfect fit for Volvo. Brilliant. Brilliant. Yes. Five bazillion impressions.

Optus and Netflix. Is Ricky Gervais still pulling in the crowds? If you’re going to use him, this is how to do it. It does feel like those words came from him, which is what everyone who is writing an ad script for a celeb is trying to do. Good stuff.

Channel 4. Nice. I’m very jealous of 4Creative – they look like they’re having all kinds of fun over there. From my very limited betting experience, this ad perfectly captures that moment when your horse takes the lead.

It’s horses with wings, it’s Avatar, it’s My Little Pony, it’s a little bent horn all stirred together by Smith & Foulkes – what’s not to love? 3.56675 zillion impressions.

Alex Holder is a Digital Marketing judge at D&AD

I swore blind. I did, I really did. I swore I’d get through a Private View without a single football analogy. I vowed that if I so much as mentioned the Mighty Stoke City, I’d borrow two of Sir Charles Vallance’s plentiful bulldog clips and clamp one to each nipple before placing my testicles in Lord David Bedwood’s vice in penance.

Then, just as I’m girding my loins and pen to write this piece, Charlie Adam only bloody well goes and scores that goal. Against Chelski. From 64 yards. With one elegant strike from his deft left foot, Charlie Adam changed his story forever.

Now he’ll always be remembered as Charlie Adam, scorer of that goal. And that’s pretty much all it takes to transform a brand. A single moment of genius, beautifully conceived, perfectly executed. It’s what we all dream of. That the stars will align, the hard work will pay off and one moment of genius will transform a brand’s, and our own, fortunes.

It really is that simple. And, of course, as we all know only too well, it’s also that hard.

Volvo "Life Paint", however, is one such moment of genius. The idea is brilliantly simple and lateral: highlight the safety features of the Volvo XC90 by producing a spray paint for cyclists that’s invisible by day but incredibly luminous when lit up by headlights. And it’s even more brilliant because it will undoubtedly save the lives of many night-time cyclists.

Yes, that’s right. An idea that will save lives and advertise a car in so doing. Amazing. Does the car get forgotten in the excitement of the product? Frankly, who cares? I hate cycling and bloody cyclists almost as much as I hate Arsenal and bloody Arsenal fans, but I’ll share it because it’s a brilliant, valuable idea.

And with cycling being so unfathomably popular both in real life and on social media, I’m certain others will share it too. If every cyclist in the world then buys an XC90, as they bloody well should, that’s a lot of cars. (In a perfect world, they’d then be so taken with their lovely new XC90, they’d never get on a bloody bike again and I’ll never have to spend another half-hour driving three miles down Plumpton Lane behind hordes of jiggling, sweaty, Lycra-clad arses just to get my Sunday paper from Bim at the shop.)

To criticise even a tiny bit would be cheap, snide carping. Everyone involved should be proud, not just of the idea, but for making it happen. Brilliantly conceived, perfectly executed, Volvo "Life Paint" is a Charlie Adam moment.

Everything else in this week’s bag is the equivalent of the innumerable matches when Charlie tried to score that goal and got it slightly wrong.

To be fair, Channel 4’s promo for the Grand National didn’t deserve to end up in the bag with "Life Paint". In any other week, this charmingly told, and beautifully animated and scored, story would sweep the board. It’s really lovely, but it’s no Charlie.

The Hailo campaign is a really interesting idea, rather poorly and confusingly executed, unfortunately. The Hellmann’s spot is solid but uninspired. The Optus and Netflix ad with Ricky Gervais is valiant but not at all to my taste.

Charlie Adam moments are beautiful precisely because they’re so rare. Most of us’ll be lucky to have one in our careers.

But we’ll never have it unless, like Charlie, we keep practising, trying and, most important of all, keep dreaming and believing. Pass the Vallance clips and Bedwood vice, please. It’s time for my penance.

Jim Thornton is a Radio Advertising judge at D&AD