Euro RSCG wins Concerned Communicator Award

Rajasthan Patrika handed out the awards for the 11th Concerned Communicator Award at the JW Marriot on September 16.

The 3,100 entries received for the awards were judged by a panel that consisted of Piyush Pandey, Prasoon Joshi, Josy Paul, Prahlad Kakar and Bharat Dabholkar. The topic for the awards was print ads for a social cause.

18 countries from across the globe submitted entries for consideration. The awards included 12 Special Mentions, the CCA-UNICEF Special Mention award, International Winner, Best 50 Entries and the Concerned Communicator Award.

Before the awards were handed out, eminent members of the advertising and media industry spoke about the causes they felt the country needs to address. Sam Balsara, chairperson and managing director, Madison World moderated the discussion of the panel, which comprised Josy Paul, chairperson and chief creative officer, BBDO India; Madhukar Kamath, president, AAAI and managing director and chief executive officer, Mudra Group; Lynn de Souza, director, Lintas Media Services and Bharat Dabholkar of Why Not Communications.

Lynn de Souza chose corruption as the social evil that the country should work towards eradicating. De Souza was of the opinion that a print campaign alone will not be powerful enough to bring about the necessary and right attitude and efforts in the right direction. "Advertising at best can bring about awareness, but not solve the problem," said de Souza.

Bharat Dabholkar and Josy Paul weren't really enthused with the idea of ads made for causes with only awards in mind. They'd be happier if the causes were backed by action, too. Paul said that when an individual has a stake in a cause, then it has the potential to grow into a national cause. Unless something tugs at your heart, no cause can snowball into a national fight against evil, said Paul.

Kamath brought into focus the evil of female foeticide and infanticide that is still rampant in India. The number of deaths caused by this evil is much larger than the deaths caused by Swine Flu, floods or any other disease and natural calamity.

After expressing their views on these issues, the evening proceeded towards announcing the awards.

Among the 12 special mentions were team Creativeland Asia for Real Help; Ogilvy Mumbai for Barasingha; Publicis Ambience for Stadium; Purple Zebra Ideas for Towards a more responsible media; Ogilvy Mumbai for Save Environment; Crayons New Delhi for Aasmaan se gire khajoor mein atke; JWT Mumbai for Crash; JWT for Laxmi Cracker; Lowe Lintas, Mumbai for Donate Eyes; Contract Advertising for Stop Commodification of Women; Imran Ur Rehman (freelancer) for Cruelty towards animals; and JWT Haryana for Female Illiteracy.

Leo Burnett, Sri Lanka won the International Award for its work submitted on employing children in terrorist activities.

There were two winners in the UNICEF Special Mentions. Interface Communications took an award for Bijli, while Ogilvy Mumbai won the second award for Save Trees 'Mouth'.

The winner of the 11th Concerned Communicator Award was team Euro RSCG for Dadima ke gharelu nuske (Grandma's home remedies). The ad gave ancient ways of killing a girl child.

Nilesh Vaidya, Ajeet Shukla and Mansi Bindal of Euro RSCG took home the prize money of US$11,000.

The winners, along with the 50 best entries, are published in the newspaper, Rajasthan Patrika, and posted on its website. All the winning entries for the year are also published in a book and distributed widely amongst the corporates to encourage them to support social causes.

Last year, Ramesh Kumar from Triton Communications, Delhi took away the cash prize for his entry, Domestic violence has many faces. The UNICEF Special Mention award was given to Swapnil Kambli and team from Interface Communications, Mumbai for the entry, Stop Child Labour.

David Droga from Droga 5, USA was the winner in the International category for his entry, Tap Project, on saving water.