Cannes 2012: Two nominations each for BBDO, Cheil & Burnett; DDB Mudra, Mindshare & OMD settle for one each

Nine Indian entries have been shortlisted in the Media Lions category. Out of the nine entries, only two are from media agencies, while the other seven are from the creative outfits.

BBDO is betting big on two campaigns - Child Welfare Fund (World's Youngest Job) and Gillette Fusion (You shave. I shave.) Interestingly, the Child Welfare Fund campaign was a finalist in the Direct Lions category as well but couldn't finally convert it into a metal.

For the McDonald's campaign, the company distributed weather proof sparrow homes along with Happy Meals at McDonald's outlets. This was an effort to provide homes to sparrows - normally a house bird which lives along with humans - that were increasingly disappearing from the city and losing their homes due to urbanisation.

To promote adult literacy, the agency created an ink pad that allowed illiterate individuals to print their names using their thumbs. The ink pad had letters engraved in Hindi, which allowed individuals to write their names. The activation was based on the insight that illiterate individuals use thumb impressions instead of signing their names.

The integrated ad campaign for Samsung Printers by Cheil India hinged on a CSR initiative. The crux of the campaign, as the name suggests, was to urge people to reduce the font size by one, each time they needed to print a document. This was the team's way of curbing de-forestation. The integrated campaign included a lot of BTL (below-the-line) activation efforts. The team approached organisations, schools, colleges and other such institutions, and had them take a pledge to always reduce the font size by one each time they printed something.

Also, Mindshare has been nominated for Domex, OMD for Tourism Australia and DDB Mudra for Cancer Patients Aid Association.