Leo Burnett strikes 10 at Ad Stars 2008

This being its first year, Ad Stars had no entry fee for agencies entering their creative work

Leo Burnett stole the show at the first ever Ad Stars Awards held in Busan, South Korea, walking away with 10 metals.

As per the rules of the event, the finalists were chosen through an online procedure, the Online Ad Festival. The finalists then competed in an offline event, during which the final prize winning works were selected across categories. The Offline Ad Festival was held in Busan in October.

Leo Burnett won awards for its communication for P&G's detergent brand, Tide, and the Luxor and Reliance campaigns. The Tide Lipstick ad won a gold in the Print category, which was also the only gold won by an Indian agency at Ad Stars 2008. Tide’s other two ads (Ketchup and Ice-Cream) got a bronze each in the Print category.

The agency’s Luxor campaigns – Che, Chaplin and Hitler – won a silver each in the Print category. A radio spot for Reliance, titled Highway, won a bronze in the Radio category. Another bronze came Leo Burnett’s way in the Print category for Passenger (Reliance). The Luxor campaign also won two bronzes in the Interactive category.

Talking about the wins, Santosh Padhi (better known as Paddy), executive creative director and national head of art, Leo Burnett India, tells afaqs!, “The specific pieces of work for Tide and Luxor have been appreciated everywhere, including the Cannes Ad Fest. The entry for the event may have been free, but as each agency wishes to enter its creative work in an international ad competition, it made the competition even more challenging.”

The Ad Stars Awards received entries from segments such as food, beverages, cosmetics/fashion, pharmacy/public health and safety, furniture/household necessities, vehicles, home electronics/IT/office equipment, financial/services, publication/logic and corporate/organisation industries. Creative work from agencies from all over the world was accepted for the competition.

Apart from Paddy, the jury of the Online Ad Festival included several Indians. Among them were Raj Kurup, chairperson and chief creative officer, CreativeLand Asia; Rajeev Raja, creative head, Mudra; Brijesh Jacob, ex-executive creative director, Grey; Puneet Kapoor, creative director, McCann Erickson; and Juju Basu, creative director, Saatchi & Saatchi. Sonal Dabral, chairperson, India, and regional executive creative director, Bates 141, judged the main (offline) competition.

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