Indian creativity gets recognition in ‘The Work’

Indian advertising agencies are making it big at the international level. Agencies such as McCann Erickson, rmg david, JWT, Mudra, Leo Burnett and Ambience Publicis are collectively celebrating the honour of having their creatives selected for this year’s volume of the prestigious publication, ‘The Work’.

Seven of JWT’s creatives have been selected for this year’s edition of ‘The Work’. The list includes ‘The Acrobat’ for Hungama TV in the ‘television’ category, the ‘75% Ideator’ ‘self-promotion’ ad, the Red Cross ‘Give’ ad in the ‘print: single’ category, and a newspaper campaign comprising four ads (titled ‘Undiscovered’, ‘Bliss’, ‘Unlimited’ and ‘Sinful’) for GRT Temple Bay in the ‘print: campaign’ category.

An enthused Senthil Kumar, creative director, JWT Mumbai, says, “Last year, in ‘The Work ‘04’, JWT was the only Indian agency to feature in the television campaign section for its Levi’s ‘Reversibles’ campaign.”

McCann Erickson is not far behind with selections across three categories. It has three of its creatives selected in the ‘print: campaign’ category – ‘Dollar’, ‘Pound’ and ‘Yen’ from its ‘Western Union Money Transfer’ newspaper campaign.

‘Happy Dent Photographer’ and ‘Little Girl – Prayas’, both created by McCann Erickson, have been selected in the television category.

In addition, three of McCann Erickson’s creatives, namely the ‘Burst Bubble’ billboard for Big Babol Bubble Gum, the ‘Diet Coke Label’ for Diet Coke and public service posters for Heal Foundation, have been selected in the ‘outdoor’ category.

Among the other selections, rmg david’s ‘Painted Trees’ campaign for WWF has been selected in the ‘ambient’ category. The campaign comprises three ads: ‘White Leopard’, ‘Tiger’ and ‘Spotted Deer’.

The WWF campaign stands out for its execution. Trees in and around Connaught Place in Delhi were painted the colours of the skins of endangered animals, so that the trees seemed to have the animals’ skins wrapped around them. A small message alongside said: ‘You never kill just the tree’. The message propagated was that all living beings are interconnected and interdependent. The campaign had previously won two awards at the One Show, the ‘campaign of the year’ award at the Outdoor Advertising Awards 2005 and a gold at the Emvies.

Mudra made an entry in ‘The Work’ with three creatives in the ‘ambient’ category: ‘Body Odour’ of Fa deodorant, and two public service campaigns – the ‘Cricket Nets’ ad against child abuse and the ‘Fake Currency Note’.

The ‘Fake Currency Note’ was an interesting idea, where fake 100 rupee notes were thrown around in crowded areas, in the belief that everyone would pick up the notes. The other side of each note carried the message, ‘Pay the same attention to picking up litter’.

Ambience Publicis won honours for its print creatives. The agency’s work on ‘Western Union Money Transfer’ – comprising the three ads ‘Guinea-Mali’, ‘Poland-Monaco’ and ‘Cote d’Ivoire-Ireland’ – has been selected for the ‘print: campaign’ category, while its ad for Hit Mosquito Repellent, called ‘Cross’, has been chosen in the ‘print: single’ category.

For the record, ‘The Work’, which was first published in 2002, is a 400-page, hardback publication. To be a part of this annual book, an ad needs to be a finalist or a winner at an existing national, regional or international award show in any of the six categories – outdoor, print: single, print: campaign, radio, television and ambient. The publication showcases the best of award-winning creatives from Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

© 2005 agencyfaqs!