Five Indian agencies score at One Show; O&M gets India's first 'Pencil'!

Going by the latest market buzz - and there's a fair amount of ‘conviction' behind that buzz to distinguish it from ‘idle speculation' - O&M has won Indian advertising its first ‘Pencil' at the One Show 2002. Of course, there is no formal confirmation about this from any quarter, especially considering there's almost a full month to go for this year's One Show (the award ceremony is scheduled for May 10). But the local ad fraternity seems fairly certain that O&M has won a Pencil (as the awards are popularly known), that too for its ‘Second-hand smoke kills' ad for the Cancer Patients Aid Association (CPAA). No one, however, seems to know if it's a gold, a silver, or a bronze.

To ascertain the validity of the rumour, agencyfaqs! got in touch with Piyush Pandey, group president & national creative director, O&M India. After a slight but meaningful pause, Pandey simply shrugged, "Look, we're keeping our fingers crossed. I think let's just wait for May 10, okay?" Nothing in the affirmative, really. But no denial either.

If the rumour is true - evidence points to a near zero likelihood of it being a red herring - it would be for the first time that an Indian agency lands an award at the One Show, arguably one of the most prestigious global creativity awards. Starting with Trikaya's classic Mauritius Tourism campaign, Indian agencies have, on and off, made it to the One Show Book on the basis of Finalist nominations. But never has a Pencil been brought home before. Naturally, excitement is high. But then, as Pandey suggests, perhaps it's best to wait for May 10.

Even without a confirmation on ‘O&M's Pencil', this year's One Show is quite a watershed for Indian advertising. In all, five Indian agencies have won Finalist nominations this year. And 10 pieces of Indian creativity have been recognized. The agencies that have made it to the final cut are O&M (five entries), Leo Burnett (two entries), rmg david, Ambience D'Arcy and Quadrant Communications (one entry each).

The five O&M entries that have won Finalist nominations are The Economic Times Excellence Awards campaign (the ‘Nike', ‘Apple' and ‘Harley-Davidson' ads), last year's print campaign for Fevicol (the ‘sea', ‘dog on leash' and ‘lolling heads' ads) and the ‘Second-hand smoke kills' ad (in three categories). Interestingly, there is a lot of debate over which killer ‘cowboy' (pun very much intended) entry has got O&M its Pencil.

Burnett's winners are the arresting ‘Before-After' ad for Tarun Mitra Mandal Eye Donation and the ‘toenails' ad for Dabur's Back-Aid ointment. While the ‘Before-After' ad was quite visible at this year's Abby Awards, the Back-Aid ad has the visual of a pair of feet with overgrown toenails. A simple, yet lateral way of communicating the side effects of backaches.

Ambience has made it to this year's Books on the back of its campaign for Parachute Advanced Coconut Oil. The visually driven campaign - which consists of the ‘swing', ‘kite' and ‘clothesline' ads - communicates the strength-of-hair proposition. For instance, one ad shows a strand of hair with a soaring kite at one end. Incidentally, this campaign was rejected by this year's Abby scrutiny committee… because the campaign broke only in December 2001.

Quadrant has got its place among the One Show Finalists for its ‘blurred sticker' for Toshiba India. This entry, in the POS (point-of-sale) category, was essentially a shop window innovation, where a translucent film covered the entire shop window. The only clear part of the film revealed a Toshiba television screen. Perfect clarity.

rmg david picked up its Finalist nomination for a film (titled ‘Gandhi') in the Non-broadcast category. The film, produced on a shoestring budget of Rs 10,000, was for Essar, and aimed at corporate viewing. The film shows the funeral procession of Mahatma Gandhi, with supers of how Sir Winston Churchill once dismissed Gandhi as a "useless, half-naked fakir". The film's signoff: ‘Don't jump to conclusions. Open your mind.' Incidentally, this is the first-ever film entry from India to win a Finalist nomination.

A pretty decent turnout for India, as it is. And a Pencil will be that much more gratifying. Wait and see. © 2002 agencyfaqs!