Cannes 2009: McCann, Ogilvy, Rediff on Press shortlist

While India managed to secure 33 shortlisted entries in the Press Lions category last year, this year India has secured only 13 shortlisted entries in the same category.

However, the work done for Perfetti Van Melle by its agencies, McCann Erickson and Ogilvy India, seems to be making a mark at Cannes. McCann Erickson has secured six shortlisted spots – the highest number from an Indian agency in the Press Lions category this year. All the six spots are for the work the agency has done for Perfetti Van Melle’s mint based candy – Chlormint.

Ogilvy India follows in the second spot with four shortlisted entries; three for the work done on Perfetti Van Melle’s Sour Marbles and one for Eno from the GlaxoSmithKline stable. The Sour Marbles campaign was to portray the extreme sourness of the candy. The ad showed a crocodile spitting out a lion, which in turn was spitting out a man, who was again spitting out a Sour Marble candy, thus highlighting the sourness of the candy. The Eno campaign was done to show that Eno allows a person to digest anything.

Rediffusion Y&R bagged three nominations for its work on Bharti Airtel’s Mobile Phone Data Backup service. The campaign aimed to inform existing Airtel users that even if one loses one’s phone, the data can be retrieved by sending a simple SMS to a number.

The ads dramatised the visual representation of stolen data and portrayed the data as human beings. For example, the ad called Housewife shows a massacre, with people lying on the floor. These people represent the type of contacts she would ideally store on her mobile phone.

Last year, India bagged two golds, two silvers and three bronzes in the Press Lions category – a gold, silver and bronze for Leo Burnett, a gold for Contract, a silver for JWT and a bronze each for Grey and Saatchi.