Deepti Deorukhar wins ‘back seat’ ticket to the Cannes

The art director from Publicis Ambience submitted the television ad for Cupid Condoms and won a gold

The Yahoo UnCannies has come to a close with Deepti Deorukhar winning a gold and an all expenses paid trip to the Cannes Advertising Festival. The contest, announced earlier this year, received more than 1,000 entries in different media. This is the first time that the awards have been conducted.

“The idea is to create a platform where fresh ideas and young creative talent are able to showcase creativity and unpublished work,” says Nitin Mathur, director, marketing, Yahoo India, in an official statement.

The jury for the contest consisted of Cyrus Oshidar, creative head, Bawa Broadcasting Corporation, Pushpendra Misra from Flying Saucer Films, Malvika Mehra, group creative director, Ogilvy India and Karl Gomes, national creative director, digital, Rediffusion Y&R. The Yahoo UnCannies was instituted to award creative excellence.

Entries were required to be submitted on the Yahoo UnCannies website in various categories such as television, print, outdoor, radio and online. The awards were open to unpublished work as well.

Mehra was surprised that though unpublished work was submitted, it was the published work that took home the awards. “It means that clients are buying the good stuff,” she says.

The award winning entry was titled ‘Back Seat Quickie’ for Cupid Condoms. The television entry shows two sperms sitting in the back seat of a car and fidgeting as they have nothing to do. The ad ends with a visual of Cupid Condoms’ logo. The film has been shot by Bapi Bit, senior creative director, Publicis Ambience.

Deorukhar, who is an art director at Publicis Ambience, explains the idea behind the ad. “The brief was to highlight the long lasting nature of the condoms, which is why the sperms are idling away,” she tells afaqs!.

The other three winners are Satish Sethumadhavan, who is from Publicis Ambience as well; Team media2win; and Kamal Bhatnagar from Euro RSCG. Each won a silver metal and an Apple iPhone.

The work submitted can be viewed on the Yahoo UnCannies website.

The contest received entries from 30 states in the country, which included Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

The Yahoo UnCannies saw entries from various creative agencies such as Ogilvy India, Leo Burnett, Publicis, Euro RSGC and JWT, and also from brands such as IBM, STAR India, Naukri.com, Fever 104 FM and WWF.