O&M, Ambience and Saatchi get Finalist nominations at One Show 2003

Three Indian agencies - O&M, Publicis Ambience and Saatchi & Saatchi India - have won Finalist nominations at this year's One Show awards, that are to be given away in approximately a month's time. In all, four entries from this country (two from O&M and one each from Saatchi and Ambience) will certainly be picking up Merit awards (Finalist nominations) at this year's award ceremony. And if things go fantastically well, gold Pencils are the limit…

The Ambience entry that has made it to the Merits list is the ‘fridge' ad for Sil Red Chili Sauce, in the Print category. Creative directors B Raghu and Manish Bhatt have created the ad. The first entry from O&M to get nominated is a campaign for Hope (Human Organ Procurement & Education Trust), in the Outdoor and Poster category. The campaign, created by Creative Director V Sunil, melds the messages of organ donation with communal harmony. The second Finalist nomination for O&M comes courtesy an entry in the Self-Promotion category. The entry, created by Prasad Raghavan and Emanuel Uputtur, is titled ‘Loser's Archive' - and is a take-off on creative showcase magazine, Archive. Needless to say, ‘Loser's Archive' showcases ads that somehow didn't quite impress global juries. Saatchi's Finalist nomination is for an ad for The Terry Fox Foundation, a Canada-based foundation that supports cancer research, and works towards finding a cure for cancer. The ad has been nominated in the Outdoor and Poster category.

An interesting aspect of this year's One Show Finalists from India is that none of the four entries picked up any awards at the recent AP AdFest 2003 (O&M's work for Hope did win a bronze award there, but for a different ad). And even at this year's Abbys, only Sil's ‘fridge' won a silver (again, Hope too won a silver Abby, but not for this entry). And although Leo Burnett India's ‘Ozone Day' ad for Sanctuary Magazine won a bronze at the AP AdFest, a silver at the Media Magazine Awards 2003, and has even got a nomination at this year's D&AD Awards, it is not in the reckoning for a Pencil.

What will now be of interest is whether O&M, with its two entries, can do a repeat performance this year and bring back a Pencil (or two!). It may be recalled that last year, O&M was one of the two agencies (the other being sibling, rmg david) that won India its first Pencils ever - for the ‘Second hand smoke' ad. The focus will, of course, also be on Ambience (which picked up a Merit award last year too) and Saatchi.

For India, this year's Finalists list is a bit disappointing, considering just three agencies and four entries have made the cut. In comparison, last year, five Indian agencies (O&M, rmg, Ambience, Leo Burnett and Quadrant Communications) had Finalist nominations, with 10 entries making a bid for Pencils.

There is, however, still some hope for India… The Finalist nominations in the Radio, Design and Interactive categories are yet to be announced. Once that happens, there might be some more pleasant tidings for India.

We'll keep you posted on this…

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