Ex-Indian adman Joji Jacob shines at the Creative Circle Awards, 2005

Joji Jacob, head, copy, JWT, Singapore, has many reasons to celebrate. The ex-Indian ad man has bagged the ‘Best of Show’ award (popularly known as the ‘Gong’) at the Creative Circle Awards, 2005, held in Singapore. He has also won seven golds, four silvers and five bronzes for his posters on Listerine, Nestle Smarties and Battery Energy Drink, respectively.

Jacob is an Indian adman who is now settled in Singapore. He started off with FCB Ulka, Kochi, and has also worked at Lowe, Chennai, and O&M, Bangalore, before he moved to JWT, Singapore.

Jacob’s work has won other international awards, too, including at the D&AD, the One Show and Cannes.

Jacob says, “I had won the ‘Best of Show’ award in 2003 as well for an anti-smoking campaign titled ‘Vicious Cycle’ for the Singapore Health Promotion Board. That campaign was targeted at teenagers, with the main message that smoking is very easy to start, but extremely difficult to stop. This time, Listerine, Nestle Smarties and Battery Energy Drink have done it for me, as also JWT, Singapore.”

The campaign for Listerine PocketPaks, ‘Keep Talking’, was based on the creative idea that when you use Listerine, your mouth remains absolutely clean and, therefore, people will want you to keep on talking.

“Thus emerged the tagline, ‘A clean mouth is well-received’. For instance, in one of the ads, a man asks his colleague to tell him a joke although he has heard it several times before,” says Jacob.

Talking about the Nestle Smarties campaign, titled ‘Questions’, Jacob says, “This campaign made use of the insight that smart kids always ask bizarre questions. For instance, ‘Why isn’t there mouse-flavoured cat food?’ or ‘Do bald men get lice?’ Around 150 such questions were arranged to form the Nestle Smarties pack.”

“Battery Energy Drink, on the other hand, helps fight fatigue at work. Therefore, the campaign showed people at work fading out just as if they were low on battery,” explains Jacob.

The Creative Circle Awards, 2005, were judged by an eminent panel, including Jeremy Craigen (from DDB, London), Sean Doyle (from Campbell Doyle Dye, London), Fred (from Marcel, Paris) and Tyler Whisnand (from Keselskrammer, Amsterdam).

For the record, the Singapore based Creative Circle Awards were launched in 1980. These awards recognise the best of advertising and creative talent and have helped Singapore to position itself on the world map of the best advertising creatives.

© 2005 agencyfaqs!