O&M gets 2 Gold Lions; industry sees it as "breakthrough"<b><font face="Verdana" size="1" color="#FF0033">Cannes Awards!</font></b>

India finally seems to have got its place under the Cannes sun.

After a hiatus of five long years, a piece of Indian creativity has picked up top honours at this year's Cannes International Advertising Festival. Actually, not one, but two gold Lions on a trot. The winning agency - O&M. And the work in question - the ‘Second-hand smoke kills' campaign for the Cancer Patients Aid Association (CPAA), of course.

Approximately a month after winning a silver ‘Pencil' at the One Show 2002 and a bronze ‘Statue' at the Clio Awards 2002, the ‘cowboy' campaign has been awarded gold Lions at Cannes - one each in the Press and Outdoor categories. "What can I say," a hugely-pleased Piyush Pandey, group president & national creative director, O&M India, told agencyfaqs!. "It was a bit of work and a bit of luck. I think the man up there was on our side. But on a more serious note, I think this will be a wonderful motivation to all the youngsters back home. That if we can do it once, we can do it 10 times."

It is not as if India has never won gold at Cannes. India's first-ever Cannes gold happened back in 1996, when the ‘hands' press ad (made by SSC&B) for pest-repellant brand Hexit had found favour among the jury. And subsequently, both Enterprise Nexus and O&M did win gold Lions - for the National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC) and Kodak, respectively. However, the NECC and Kodak Lions were picked up in the media department, and not in creative. And what makes this year's achievement more significant is the fact that two gold Lions have come India's way.

Naturally, the client (CPAA) should be given as much credit for backing the powerful idea. "You must realize that these are not merely pieces of art being appreciated for their creativity," said YK Sapru, founder chairman of the 33-year-old CPAA. "This is actually communication that works and has proved highly effective in helping us move towards a smoke-free world. In fact, we are now going to extensively mobilize this campaign (through posters and outdoor media) so that we generate greater awareness about the ills of smoking. And we are looking for sponsors for the second round of this campaign."

Incidentally, agencies have always credited CPAA for backing the creative idea. And a lot of the work done for the CPAA has won at various award forums. The ‘cowboy' campaign, for instance, also won silver at this year's Abby Awards. Then there was the ‘bus journey' film (made by O&M) that won at the Asia-Pacific level. Contract Advertising had done a wonderful press ad (‘George Harrison') for CPAA, which incidentally won gold at the last Triple A Awards. And Leo Burnett's print ad (‘filter') won a Finalists nomination at last year's Clio Awards.

The industry, of course, appears to be more than happy with the turn of events. Not just for O&M, but for Indian advertising, as a whole. "This is fantastic news," says Ravi Deshpande, head of Lemon Communications. "I think all of us here need to take a cue from this and ensure this happens on a bigger scale - and more consistently - in future. We have the talent and the resources. This just tells us to push for it harder, so that we have a regular flow of powerful ideas."

Mirroring a similar thought, Deepa Kakkar, vice-president & executive creative director, HTA, says, "This piece of work deserves to win, no questions about that. Now it just has to be replicated more often." Rajeev Raja, executive creative director, Bates India, is also thrilled. "Really good news… I feel very happy for Piyush, O&M and the Indian advertising industry," he says.

That this win will benefit Indian advertising in terms of ‘getting noticed internationally' seems to be the common belief. "Making ourselves noticed in the global scene is long overdue," observes Deshpande. "And this win helps India's cause among international juries, as it will bring us and our work into their mental map. I think that their perception towards Indian advertising will change favourably, even though I think we are already fairly evolved."

"It is wonderful, our making it to the global platform," is Kakkar's reaction. "There will certainly be more interest and respect for our work now."

"It's a great breakthrough in terms of their perception of Indian advertising," says Raja. "In the past, I think there were quite a few ideas from India that were worthy of winning Lions. But perceptions might have come in the way. With this, juries will look at India in a new light, which increases our chances of winning in the future. I also think, in this case, the jury was able to make the ‘connect'. The ad had appeal because the jury could easily associate with the Marlboro cowboy. Whereas, in the past, they perhaps did not make the cultural connect. But that doesn't matter… hats off to O&M for achieving this."

Two Lions in the pocket. And the Film awards still to go. Will there be more Lions for India to talk about? Watch this space. © 2002 agencyfaqs!